If Only
by Vampchick001
Summary: What were the Mauraders Hogwarts lives like? What about Lily? How do they fit together? This is my account on what Hogwarts was like with some of the most famous wizards attending. REVISED! Chp. 18 is up!
1. I'll Miss You

****

I am fixing this chapter! Look at it, skim, whatever, but I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: J.K. owns this, not me. I only own what you don't recognize…

~Neutral POV~

Lily Evans walked out of her house and to the house next door. She had a look on her face, like someone was tickling and punching her at the same time. It was her birthday, but it didn't feel so happy after breakfast. When the owl swooped in and changed her life forever. When she accepted the owl, she accepted the fate of going with it.

Walking up the steps of the house, Lily took in a deep breath, and rang the bell. Waiting about five seconds, she walked in.

"KARI!!" she yelled up the stairs. 

"Coming!" a voice yelled from up the stairs. 

Karina came down the stairs looking as upset as Lily felt.

"What's wrong?" they asked at the same time.

They giggled a little nervously. There was a yell from upstairs. Karina grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her outside and down to the little park. They both sat on the swings, lightly walking back and forth.

"So, what's going on with your parents today?" Lily asked.

Karina black hair hung over her face. She looked up with her crystal blue eyes and said, "My mom wants me to go to this boarding school, and dad says no."

"Oh, Kari! My mom and dad decided that I can go to this absolutely wonderful boarding school! I don't want to leave, you, but they said that it could give me a really good life, and its just, well, I want you to come."

Lily's vivid green eyes looked away from her best friend and towards the ground.

"Lily, you just said that really fast and I almost didn't understand it. Don't worry about me, though, I'll be fine. Daddy hasn't gotten drunk in a month! Go, or I'll be mad at you." Kari said, looking at Lily, "And besides, I'll probably be going to a boarding school to. The one my mom wants me to go to sounds just as lovely as yours."

Lily swept a piece of her auburn hair out of her face and said, "Really?"

"Yes, really, really."

"Well, if that's the case, then I'll race you home! My party starts in half an hour and I get to decorate this year!"

"You're on! I want to put up some streamers!"

And with that, the two girls raced down the street, each feeling a little lighter at the heart, but another weight of another kind settled on them, not sad, but scared of leaving their normal lives.

~August 31~

"Bye Lily. I'm going to miss you." Kari said, her eyes brimming with tears.

"I'll miss you more Kari." Lily said, her eyes overflowing.

The two eleven year olds hugged each other with promises of writing, and then broke apart.

"This is for you." Kari handed Lily a wrapped box.

"I have something for you too." Lily took out a second wrapped parcel.

Both unwrapped the boxes and giggled sadly. There were two identical necklaces. A long silver chain with a crescent moon and a star.

"I'll see you at Christmas. I'm coming home." Lily said.

"Me too. Have fun."

"Yeah, I'll try. Bye Kari."

"Bye Lily."

Karina walked out of Lily's room and down the stairs, a tear falling each time she stepped farther away from her friend, wondering if she would really keep in close touch with her, or if it was just a childhood friendship meant for failure.

…The Next Morning…

"I'm going to be late!" Kari screeched as she ran along the platform. "Nine and three quarters…where is it?"

Looking around, she saw platform nine, and ten, but nothing else.

Sighing, she leaned on the brick wall, and instantly, she slid through. The first thing she saw was a scarlet train with the words 'Hogwarts Express' written on the side.

"I made it!" Kari said brightly, then headed off to find a compartment.

Lily made her way down the station looking for the right platform. 'Good thing I asked about the platform in Diagon Alley.' Lily thought. She looked at the barrier, and took a running start and suddenly, the 'Hogwarts Express' materialized in front of her. Smiling, she went off to find a compartment.

Kari found an empty compartment in the very back of the train. She went in and sat down.

'I wish Lily was here.' she thought. Then, the compartment door opened.

Lily walked down the aisle to find a compartment. She opened the very last one and screamed.

"LILY!"

"KARI!"

Kari jumped up and her and Lily hugged. They sat down and proceeded to tell each other their stories.

"I got the letter and I wanted to go, but I didn't want to leave you. My mom and dad said whatever I wanted and Petunia just screamed 'freak' and ran off." Lily said smiling, though it still hurt to think Petunia, her adored older sister now thought of her as something to scoff at.

"Well, I got my letter and my dad read it. He was like, no, her abilities are our responsibility. My mom wants me to get away from there so she agreed and tried to convince my dad. That's when you came over. When I got home, mom was yelling something along the lines of, 'You know what she can See! They will help her so she doesn't wake up screaming.' And then it was decided I would go." Kari said frowning.

"What's wrong?" Lily asked.

"Do you think they can really help me control what I See?" Kari asked.

"I hope so."

"Me too."

Suddenly, the compartment door opens again and two boys come in, followed by two more.

"Can we sit here?" a boy with black hair asks.

"I don't care." Lily said.

"Me either." Kari said.

They both watched the boys settle into seats.

"I'm Sirius Black, by the way," the boy with black and dark blue eyes said, holding out his hand. Karina and Lily both took it.

"James Potter." said the boy that walked in with him. He had dark, unruly hair and hazel eyes, nodding his head.

"Remus Lupin." a boy with light brown hair said, he smiled a little nervously.

"Peter Pettigrew." the fourth boy squeaked. He was the shortest, with a dirty blonde hair color. He blushed when Lily and Kari smiled at him.

Lily looked at them, then said, "Lily Evans."

"Karina Karr." 

Lily and Kari eyed them. Remus seemed a little sick, his eyes had dark circles under them, and he looked really tired.

"What year are you in?" Remus asked.

"First." Lily and Kari said at the same time.

"Same here." James said.

"What house do you want to be in?" Sirius asked nonchalantly, glancing out the window as they left London behind and the green countryside coming up quickly.

Lily considered the question.

"Well, I think Gryffindor sounds great, but Ravenclaw doesn't sound too bad either, so I guess it's a tie…" Lily said.

"I think Ravenclaw sounds really good, more like my type of place, from what I've read, but Gryffindor would be awesome to be in." Kari said, thinking on it.

"Gryffindor is what I want to be in!" all four of the boys said.

"We'll just have to see when we get there." Kari said.

"Yeah, I guess so." Sirius said smiling.

"Are you girls Muggle born's?" James asked.

"Yes. And what of it?" Kari said. She had a rather nasty experience at Diagon Alley with being a 'mudblood' so they put it.

"Nothing. I just wanted to make conversation."

"Alright then."

Lily started laughing at this point.

"Hey stop laughing!" Kari said, "Stop! People in Diagon Alley were making a big deal out of it, and I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have to put up with it the whole way there. It wasn't the most pleasant time I had having my robes fitted."

Karina made the mistake of looking back at Lily, and she was laughing still.

"What, may I ask, is so funny?"

"You looked so stupid saying the bit about the robe fitting!"

Karina looked at Lily, who was almost crying she was laughing so hard, that she couldn't help but start laughing too.

Peter looked at them and asked Remus, "What's so funny?"

"She…takes everything…as an…offense…" Lily laughed pointing at Kari.

"I do not." Kari stopped laughing suddenly.

After a while, Lily stopped, but wouldn't look at Karina, or she would start giggling.

The witch with the food tray came by, and they bought their food. 

"I've never even heard of half this stuff." Lily commented, dumping some of her chocolate on the seat, "I just saw chocolate and bought it."

"Lily, so you remember the last time you did that? You ended up being allergic to the filling." Karina smiled at the memory.

"Well yeah, but some on, how bad could this get?"

"No comment on my part."

"Shut it."

Karina didn't say anything, but picked up a chocolate frog and stuffed it in her mouth.

"How long have you guys known each other?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Ummm… well, forever. Even before we were born, our parents knew each other from the army. They were trooped together when stationed in America, so they knew each other quite well." Lily said, cocking her head to side while thinking.

"Did you guys live in America?" Peter asked quietly.

"Yeah, from when we were seven till we were nine. Sometimes, when I get angry, you can here my little southern accent coming through. Its rather funny." Karina said, a little thoughtfully.

"That's interesting." Remus commented, opening a bag of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.

"What about you guys, you seem pretty chummy, how long have you known each other?" Karina asked, picking up a pumpkin pasty, and handing it to Lily, who swapped her for a licorice wand.

"Well, me and Sirius here, have known each other since we were about six. We met Remus in Diagon Alley after we knocked down some bookshelves in Flourish and Blotts, he was laughing at Snape, who had a large bruise over his eyes because of it." James paused to laugh at that and then continued, "We just met Peter on the platform. He looked alone, so we took him under our wing, and here we are."

"Ah, that's interesting. DO you, umm, often, pull off things like that?" Lily asked hesitantly.

"Well yeah, you're only a kid once ya know." Sirius popped into the conversation.

"That's interesting. Just listen to me now, I better not find anything like that being done to me, or you can be sure you'll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life." Lily said, in a pleasant conversational tone, like she was commenting on the weather, or a new piece of clothing.

"Oh, we're scared now." James put on a mock scared voice.

"You should be, she's bad enough without magic, but just think, with it, she'll be terrible. I still remember that one time, remember Lils, when you did that to Pet?" Karina left off laughing.

"Oh yeah, " Lily blushed then looked up, "She deserved it." She burst out laughing.

All four boys looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

Some hours later, after small talk, and many inside jokes that left one group or the other in the dark, the train slowed down. Then, the train stopped, and they were there.


	2. A Painful Sight

Lily and Kari got off the train and looked around. People in black robes surrounded them. They had changed as soon as the boys had left, so they were just two figures in the group. Then, they heard someone calling.

"Firs' years over here!"

Kari and Lily linked arms and walked to where the voice was calling.

"Follow me." said a huge man, "My name 's Hagrid, welcome to Hogwarts."

They followed him down to a lake, where some boats were sitting.

"No more th'n four ter a boat." he said, as the nervous first years clambered in. 

In the boat that Lily and Kari picked, two other girls climbed in, one with short blonde hair, and the other with short brown hair. They smiled at each other nervously. 

As soon as the boats started moving, the blonde looked sick.

"I have motion sickness," she explained while turning a light green color.

"Its alright Sarah. We're almost… Oh!" the brown haired girl gasped. They got their first glimpse of Hogwarts.

All four girls gaped at the magnificent castle. Sarah even lost the green look to her face. 

The castle was glowing from the windows, and it was huge. It gave off a powerful aura that made Lily and Karina catch their breaths. 

Soon, they landed and were led up some stair where a stern looking woman met them.

"Thank you Hagrid." she said nodding curtly, "Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall. The Sorting will be soon. Come."

She led them to a small room and told them to wait.

"I wonder how they Sort us?" Kari asked.

"I dunno. I hope it isn't too hard." Lily said, her nerves racking up.

"Well we all know Ms. Smart Lily Evans will be able to do anything." Karina nudged Lily in the side with her elbow.

"Shush Kari. You're just as smart as me." Lily blushed.

Karin snorted and then said, "Yeah right. I don't have the patience to be as smart as you."

"What are you mudbloods talking about?" a voice hissed from behind the two girls.

"What did you call me?" Karina said, turning around to face a boy with greasy hair.

"You heard him mudblood," another boy said, with a sneer on his face.

"Do you have a problem with us or something, cause you know there's something I can do about that!" Lily started balling up her fist.

"Don't, they could curse you into oblivion knowing their families." Sirius said from beside them.

"What do you mean, I'd punch the lights outta them before they could utter a word." Lily growled.

"Yeah, sure, Evans, we all believe you capable of that." James, no, Potter said from next to Sirius.

"You want me to prove it Potter?" Lily was clenching her teeth now.

McGonagall decided to show up at that time.

"Line up, and follow me." she said, and they did.

They were led to a huge dining hall, where all the rest of the students were. Suddenly, Kari felt really tiny.

They all stood in a line, and a stool was brought out. On it was a dirty old hat.

Lily and Kari looked at each other, then back at the hat.

Suddenly, it broke out into a song. (AN: Don't expect one from me.)

"Students, when I call your name, please come up, place the ht on your head, then, once it calls your House, go sit at the appropriate table." 

"I just hope we aren't in the same House as them." Lily muttered into Karina's ear.

"Me too."

McGonagall said, and then started calling names.

"Avery, Callie"

A girl with blonde hair walked up to the stool, shaking. She put it on her head, and Lily caught a glance at her crossed fingers.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The girl looked a little downcast, but nonetheless walked over to the cheering table on the far right.

"Avery, Seth"

A boy, who was no doubt her twin, walked up to the hat coolly and slipped it one. Quickly it shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Bellatrix"

A girl with heavily lidded eyes went up to the hat, with a malicious glint in her eyes. The hat was only on her head for about ten seconds before it called, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Black, Sirius"

Sirius went up and slipped the hat on. He was looking rather pale. 

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius got up and went to the yelling table.

There were a few more people called while Lily and Kari shifted nervously. Then, McGonagall said, "Evans, Lily"

Kari smiled and Lily went up, and shaking, put the hat on.

__

Well, I see you're very bright. That's where you would go well in Ravenclaw. Your also very brave, and kind. That's definitely a Gryffindor trait. I think you would go best in… 

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily grinned and went to sit at the Gryffindor table.

Kari tried to smile, but couldn't. She was too nervous.

"Finch, Sarah" was sorted into Hufflepuff. She was the girl from the boat, "Fletcher, Mundungus" was made a Ravenclaw, "Hwin, Elizabeth", the other girl from the boat, was sorted into Ravenclaw.

Then, in no time it seemed, "Karr, Karina" was called.

At the Gryffindor table, Lily started murmuring, "Please let her be in Gryffindor."

The last thing Kari saw before the hat went on her head was Lily crossing her fingers and closing her eyes.

__

Ah, I was wondering how long it would take to get to you. Your friend Lily had a lot of memories of you. I see you are a lot alike. Very smart, brave, and friendly. Oh, but what's this? You have a lot of sadness. You parents. But you want to prove to your father you are worth something? I think you belong in…

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Karina felt her heart skip a beat. She stood up and practically ran to Lily.

"I made it!"

"I'm so happy!"

"Hey look, Remus is being sorted. He looks about as nervous as I felt." Kari said watching him put on the hat.

After a short pause, the hat shouted,

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus scuttled off the stage to sit with Sirius. 

Lily looked down at them.

"Do you think they've been friends long?"

"I don't know, they seemed like pretty good friends on the train. Oh, look, it's Peter's turn. "

"Yeah, hey Kari, did you get a weird feeling from him?"

"As a matter of fact I did. I don't know why, but I felt sad around him. I don't know but my gut told me he was a bad person to hang out with, or maybe it's my Sight, maybe he will be a bad person."

"I dunno…" 

Then the Sorting Hat shouted

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Kari looked at Lily and said, "This doesn't feel right."

"Potter, James"

James went up, looking sure of himself as he put on the hat, and no sooner did it hit his head then it yelled

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He stood up and walked over to join his friends.

"Prewett, Alice" was made a Ravenclaw. Two boys down the Gryffindor table yelled, "Gosh, our own little sister betraying us and going to Ravenclaw!"

Lily and Kari went back to whispering about things when they heard Sirius yell, "Woah, Snivellus is in Slytherin!" James, Remus and Peter all started laughing. Kari looked up to see the sallow skinned boy, with greasy hair from before the Sorting, walk to the Slytherin table. Suddenly she grabbed her head.

"Kari, what is it?" Lily asked concerned.

Kari just started swaying, her eyes scrunched up in pain.

There was a boy, who looked exactly like James, Snape was older, he was yelling at the boy. The boy turned around and then Kari came to.

Lily looked at her friend and tried to get her to wake up before the Sorting was over. People were starting to look over at them, muttering.

"Wh- what happened?" Lily asked Kari.

"I had a vision." Kari muttered, not looking up. She was trying to think of why Snape was older and James looked almost the same as he did now.

Then, the last person was Sorted, and a Professor stood up.

"That must be Dumbledore." Lily whispered, glancing at Kari.

"Yeah."

"Welcome Students, new and old. I hope you enjoy it here at Hogwarts. Now there are a few rules that need to be explained here…"

Kari looked up at Dumbledore, then her head started to hurt again.

The James like boy was there. With Dumbledore in an office of some sort. Dumbledore was talking and the boy seemed to be angry. He picked up something off a desk and threw it across the office. There were tears in his eyes. Karina opened her eyes then.

"Kari, are you okay?" Lily asked putting her hand on Kari's arm.

"Yeah, I'll be good."

Then the food magically appeared.

Lily looked at her friend again, was she imagining it, or did she look upset? 

"Did you have a vision?" Lily asked.

"Just a flash. I'll tell you later."

Dinner became less tense after a while, and even Kari loosened up.

After a huge dinner, everyone began to leave. 

"First years, come with us," an older student said, "I'm a Prefect and I'll take you to the Gryffindor common room."

All the first years got up and trudged along after him. They went up hidden staircases and trick steps, and they finally reached a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"Password?" she asked. Lily and Kari were perplexed.

" Frog Spawn." the Prefect said, "You'll want to remember that."

They all filed in and were told where to go. Yawning all the way, Kari, Lily and the other two new first years walked into their dormitory and climbed into the beds they chose. "'Night" they all mumbled, then fell asleep.


	3. Time Flies

The first few weeks at Hogwarts went by like a blur to Lily and Karina. This was the life Karina always wanted, she ached to belong, and now, she did. Lily was enthralled with everything around her. She excelled in Charms, as Mr. Ollivander said her wand was excellent for charms. She was soon top of the class and even older students asked for her advice sometimes.

Karina, on the other hand, loved Defense Against the Dark Arts. Fighting against evil, it was like that books she read, and always wished she was a part of. 

The first week was hectic, but Lily and Karina never had such a wonderful time.

__

Flashback

"Thank you Ms. Evans, five points to Gryffindor."

Lily smiled so much her cheeks hurt.

"Way to go Lils, your fist points towards the House!" Kari whispered enthusiastically to her.

McGonagall turned around and raised her eyebrow and Karina quickly quieted down.

End Flashback

But, all good things must have a bad thing. Or in their case, a few egotistical males and the Slytherins. 

It was the first Friday of term and Kari and Lily were lost. They were trying to find the Potions class, but were having no such luck.

"Where can it be!" Kari wailed looking around.

"I don't know, but we are going to have detention for a week now!" Lily complained.

"Well, lets try down this way and see if we get anywhere." Kari said, a little desperately.

"Alright." Lily agreed, and the two walked down the corridor.

Finally, they made it to the class and only two minutes late.

"Sorry Professor." Kari whispered as they sat down at a table in the back.

"Tardiness will not be accepted, twenty points from Gryffindor." the woman sneered at them, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I am Professor Hasta. In this class I will accept no foolishness because someone could get hurt. Now, take out some parchment and copy this down." Professor Hasta rapped the board, and a whole board of writing appeared.

Karina and Lily, flushed, took out their parchment and quills and were scratching away when Sirius raised his hand.

"Yes Black, what is it?" Professor Hasta snapped.

"Can we take out a quill too?" he asked innocently.

"Five points from Gryffindor for you unneeded comment."

"But do I need a quill?"

"Yes you need a quill Black, and five more points from Gryffindor."

Kari looked over at him and rolled her eyes. 'Stupid class clown.'

She took out some parchment and wrote down the notes, then took out another piece and wrote down, 

__

Do you think this whole class will be like that?

Lily looked at it, then over at the four boys who were laughing at something. Then, Lily wrote,  
_I have a feeling, that they will be those boys…_

Karina looked at Lily and heaved her shoulders in an inaudible sigh.

After class, Lily and Kari hurried out to drop their books off and maybe start some homework. Before they even left the dungeons though, someone called "Maybe you Mudbloods should get a watch and you won't be late anymore!"

"Was he talking to us?" Kari asked.

"I don't know. But I swear if one more person calls me a mudblood, I'm going to murder." Lily said through clenched teeth. 

"I know, I just wanna strangle them nice and slowly." Kari started, when she heard a loud crash.

Lily started to go back when she saw James and Sirius beating up Snape. The before even coming out of her trance, she walked right up and yelled, "Stop it! What are you doing?"

Karina hurried back there and tried to pull Sirius away. Lily grabbed James and pulled him away.

"What was the meaning of that?" Kari screeched.

"He…He called you the 'M' word." Sirius said, looking up at them.

"He shouldn't have done that." James simply stated wiping his mouth where some blood was trickling down.

"Why does it matter to you?" they asked at the same time.

"It's an insult, they were only trying to help." Remus said, helping Sirius up.

"That's no excuse. You can get loads of points taken off for fighting. That was just dumb. And if we ever need help, we'll ask." Kari said and started to walk off with Lily at her side.

"Well that was nice. We were just trying to help." James muttered and ground his toe into the floor.

"You consider that help?" Remus asked smiling.

"If we had ground him into a pulp, he wouldn't have ever said that again." Sirius answered.

Remus sighed, "Alright then, come on. Peter is probably already eating dinner."

The three guys walked up to the common room and saw Lily and Kari sitting on a chair, they ignored them and went up to their dormitory.

Lily and Kari stormed up to the common room and plopped onto a chair.

"I lost my appetite." Kari said.

"I'm hungry. Please let's go to dinner." Lily said, starting to beg.

"No. I don't want to see them."

"They were only trying to help. Come on." 

"Go on. I'll stay here. I'm going to get some homework done."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"I'll see you in about fifteen minutes then."

"Alright."

Lily headed out the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall. She looked around the Gryffindor table and saw the other Gryffindor first years.

"Hey, can I sit with you?" Lily asked a little shyly.

"Umm… I don't know…" Gina said uncertainly.

"Okay then." Lily said, and sat down at the end of the table by herself. She seemed to have lost her appetite too. Without eating anything, she went back to the common room.

As soon as Lily left, Kari went up to the dormitory and screamed into her pillow. As soon as she finished, Kari went down to the common room and started on her homework. She had to write two essays, one for Transfiguration and the other for Potions. She frowned at them both, and then heard someone say, "That face doesn't become you."

"Lily! You're back early! Didn't you eat?" Kari asked looking at her friend's face, "What's wrong?"

"You know Gina? One of the other Gryffindor first years, well, I asked if I could sit with her, and she gave me this look, like I was this bug that she wanted squished. Like Petunia looked at me when she heard I was a witch." Lily explained, looking at her feet.

"Lily, it don't matter what they say."

Lily started to giggle.

"What?"

"Having lived in America shows through when you're mad."

"Hey, don't insult mai southern accent." Kari said in a southern drawl.

"Oh no, never." Lily said in mock amazement.

At that moment, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter came into the common room. Lily and Kari didn't glance at them once, but started on their transfiguration homework.

From that day, things were rather tense between the two groups. Especially when Snape was around. James and Sirius took to insulting him and trying to curse him every time he was around, and that just made Lily and Kari even angrier. Then, the night before Christmas break, all hell broke loose in the common room.

"Why do you find it necessary to curse him every time he's around!" Lily shouted, her face starting to turn red.

"Well he **DOES **call you the 'M' word every time he gets in your hearing range!" James yelled back, even though they were only three feet from each other. By now, the whole common room was staring.

"So! It doesn't bother us, why does it bother you!" Kari shouted back.

"He…he's insulting you and your family and you don't care!? We're just trying to help!" Sirius retorted.

"WE DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!" Kari and Lily screamed back at the same time. They stormed up to their dormitory while everyone was left staring at James and Sirius. Remus walked up to them and led them to their own dormitory to calm down. They were both red in the face and breathing rather hard. Peter followed, a bit timidly though.

Christmas break came and went and by now, the real serious students were starting to get to studying.

"Have you seen my History of Magic notes?" Lily asked, rummaging around her area of the dormitory.

"Umm, I might have them, I think that was the day I fell asleep during class and I borrowed them from you." Kari said, reaching into her bag, and pulling out a two foot long piece of parchment, "Here."

Lily took it and started rewriting all the important facts on it.

"Lily, its only February you know?" Karina whispered.

"Only February! No, I need to start studying! If not I'll never get it done!" Lily started to rant.

The next few months flew by, and too soon it seemed that Lily and Karina were sitting in their own compartment on the train headed back home.

"I don't want to go home." Karina said, rather quietly.

"Why?" Lily said startled.

"My dad has gone back to drinking again, and you know how he gets."

Lily put a comforting arm around her friends shoulder, "I'm sure you'll be okay."

"It's not me I'm worried about, it's Sam and mom. Sam is tuning sixteen and she wants emancipated from home, but dad won't let her. I have a feeling this summer is going to be awful, and you know my feelings are usually right."

"Nothing bad will happen. And if it does, come stay with me." Lily said firmly.

"That's the problem! I can't let him hurt them!"

Lily was speechless.

"Don't worry about it Lily. I'll live."

Lily nodded, and soon enough they were at King's Cross and unloading their trunks.

"LILY! KARINA! OVER HERE!" a voice called.

"MOM!" Lily shrieked and ran over to her mother's warm embrace.

Kari walked slowly over to them.

"Oh Kari love! Its so good to see you!" Mrs. Evans hugged Kari tightly, "Your mom should be here shortly. Jim is working, and so is Mark, so it'll be just us girls tonight. You and your mother will be staying with us!"

"KARINA!"

"MOMMY!" Karina dropped her things and rushed to her mother, knocking down a startled boy, who just happened to be Sirius Black. He looked at Karina and her mother with a sour face.

"Sirius, what's up?" James asked.

"Nothing, just look who's all happy."

"C'mon mate, your place can't be that bad."

"I'd like to see you live there…" Sirius mumbled.


	4. What happened to your face?

"Bye Mom." Kari whispered, "Be safe."

"I will. Have fun sweetie. I love you."

"I love you too Mom." Kari wiggled out of her mother's embrace and watched her walk away, hoping that she would be safe.

"KARINA!"

"LILY!"

Lily ran up to her friend and grabbed her into a hug.

"How have you…WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE!" Lily yelled, looking at her friend in amazement.

"Shhhh…I'll tell you on the train." Kari whispered, holding her hand up to cover her face, people were starting to look at them.

They headed to the train to find a compartment for themselves, when they ran into Snape, Avery and Bellatrix Black. 

"Well look who it is. Two Mudbloods." Snape held out his wand, then he caught a glimpse of Karina's face, "What have you been doing Karr? With your face like that you give the foulest Mudbloods a good name."

"Out of our way Snape!" Lily commanded, then pushed past him, pulling Karina with her.

Karina could hear the Slytherins sniggering.

They found an empty compartment at the end of the train, and went to sit in it.

"Tell me now. What happened?" Lily demanded.

"My dad got drunk last night, he was angry that I was leaving again, so he came home in a right state. Bloody bastard. He started throwing things at mum and me, then started to yell at Sam. Well Sam started to go out the door, when he grabbed her and started to hit her, well I bloody well couldn't let him do that could I, so I jumped on him, and he ground me to the floor. He just wouldn't stop hitting me, so finally, Mum pulled him off." Karina finished her story and just stared at a spot on the floor.

"I'm sorry I didn't come over." Lily said quietly.

"Stop being sorry. You would have gotten hurt anyways." Kari said sharply.

They just sat there for a few minutes, every one in a while, looking up to look at each other.

The witch with the food came by and they bought food.

Around two, the four people they wanted to see least popped into their compartment.

"Hey Karr, Evans, how have you been?" Potter asked smiling a cheesy smile.

"Leave now and I might spare your ear drums." Karina said calmly.

"Well that wouldn't be fun." Black came in and sat down.

"Get out please." Lily said, her teeth clenched in anger…again.

"Nah, we're bored and interesting things always happen around you." Potter said, sitting across from Black.

"Ugh! Fine, just don't bother us." Karina threw up her hands in defeat.

Remus and Pettigrew came in after that statement, a little cautiously still.

"Hello Karina, Lily, how were your summers." Remus said politely.

"Just freakin' peachy." Karina mumbled, looking out the window so they wouldn't notice her bruised face.

"Fine thank you Remus."

"What's wrong Karr? Your perfect family not so perfect anymore?" Black asked bitterly.

"What do you mean?" Karina asked sharply, turning to face them.

"Well you seemed so happy to see you mother dearest at the station last year, and now you're all, grrr about your summer." Black wasn't even looking at her.

"Karina, what happened to you?" Remus asked concerned when he saw her face.

"Black, what do you think you know? Huh?"

Black looked up and saw her bruised face and felt bad.

"Oh, umm, Karr, I didn't know…" he started when she interrupted him.

"Yeah, cause if you did, you wouldn't have opened your overly big mouth! Get out, all of you! Just leave!" Karina screamed.

Whether it was guilt or something else, none of the guys argued, but left quietly.

"Kari, don't mind them, they're aren't worth it and you know it." Lily said softly.

"I know, but they just piss me off."

"I know, we'll get them back. Just wait."

"I know, we will…" Karina left off grinning about the revenge they will wreck upon them. Last year, they turned their hair pink for a week after one of their 'Snape' incidents. It was funny for everyone except the guys.

They changed, and were soon coming to Hogwarts.

"What am I going to do about my face? I don't need people staring at me." 

"Well, you could always go straight up to the hospital wing."

"I think I will, I think something's broken anyways."

The train stopped, and Karina and Lily got off looking around wondering where to go. They saw the mainstream of students heading off to what looked like some carriages, and heard the familiar, "Firs' years over here!"

"Lily, what are those?" Karina asked, pointing to some reptilian looking horses in front of the carriages.

"What?" Lily asked, looking around perplexed.

"I think they're thresals!" Kari exclaimed.

"Well no wonder I can't see them, I read you can only see them if you've seen someone die. Who have you seen die?" Lily asked.

"My baby sister, in the hospital." Kari said quietly.

"Oh, I remember now…" Lily left off uncomfortably.

They climbed into the carriages, and were about to pull off, when the four boys joined them they had been hoping to avoid.

"Hello ladies!" Sirius Black exclaimed cheerfully, sitting opposite of Kari.

"Oh great. Didn't you get our point on the train that we don't want to see you?" Karina said dully.

"Don't sound so disappointed love!" James Potter said, climbing in after Sirius.

"I'm not your 'love'" Karina said, her voice getting louder.

"I know, I was talking to Evans."

Lily took in a deep breath and said "Potter, don't mess with me right now unless you want another repeat of last year."

"Then it was you?" Potter exclaimed.

"Naw, ya think? Of course it was! How thick can you get?" Lily said, her voice dripping with mockery. 

"Don't mind them." Remus answered, coming in after James.

"We'll try not to." Lily said frowning at James and Sirius.

Peter just came in quietly, looking at Karina and Lily nervously.

The carriages pulled up, and Karina quickly got out, followed by Lily.

"I'll see you later Lily." Karina waved, as she went up the stairs to the hospital wing.

"Bye Kari!" Lily called after her.

"Where is she going Evans?" Potter asked Lily, falling in step beside her.

"No where that concerns you Potter," she said coldly.

"Ouch Evans, that hurt!" Potter said, putting his hands over his heart.

"Leave me alone." Lily stated, walking off to the end of the Gryffindor table to sit by herself.

Potter went to sit next to Sirius.

"Why isn't Karr sitting with Evans?" Sirius asked.

"I dunno. All I saw was Karr walking up the stairs." James shrugged.

"Maybe it's because of her face that she's going to the hospital wing…." Remus suggested.

"We could ask her tomorrow." Peter added in timidly.

"Are you crazy! And get our heads bitten off? I'd rather not." Sirius burst out, just as everyone got quiet for the Sorting. Everyone started laughing. Sirius stood up and took a bow, which induced more laughter from the hall. The first years looked around nervously.

"If you are finished Mr. Black, the Sorting is about to begin." Professor McGonagall said curtly.

"Yes Minnie!" Sirius said in a singsong voice.

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "Detention tomorrow night Mr. Black. My room."

Sirius mouth gaped open. The Sorting started among much laughter as everyone was amused by Sirius getting detention even before classes started.

The Sorting ended, the feast started, and ended and Lily was exhausted. She trudged up to the common room, having heard the password from a prefect and dragged herself up to the dormitory. She found Karina sitting on her bed listening to the radio, which was amazingly playing Muggle music.

"How did you get it to do that?" Lily asked.

"The Wizarding Wireless Network has a all muggle rock station. I was lucky to find it." she shrugged.

"How are you feeling?"

"Eh, how would you feel? I had a broken rib." Kari touched her side and winced, "Madame Pomfrey can't make bruises go away, and I insisted on coming to the dormitory. How was the feast?"

Lily recounted all of Black's actions and Kari frowned.

"What a prat."

"…and then I was like, 'He is so adorable!' and I couldn't possibly say no."

"So you're going out with him?"

"No, I broke up with him a week ago. He was a jerk."

The other two Gryffindor second years were coming up.

Lily and Kari looked at Gina and Denise. There was a slight tension in the air. They hadn't gotten along since the time last year when Lily and Karina insulted Black and Potter. Gina and Denise thought James and Sirius didn't deserve to be yelled at.

"Turn that down." Gina said in a hard voice.

"No." Karina stated simply.

Gina and Denise just 'erged' and got into their beds, pulling the curtains closed rather roughly.

"I can tell this is going to be a rough year." Lily whispered to Kari. Kari nodded and slipped into her bed.


	5. Seeing is Believing

****

(AN: Give me a break. This is my first fan fic.)

Disclaimer: Yes, I finally figured this thing out. This is for all my other chapters too, I don't own what you recognize, and I own what you don't recognize. All that you do, J.K. Rowling, one of the most incredible authors ever, owns all that.

Second year came with even more problems, since 'The Mauraders', self named certain group of egotistical Gryffindors, we can all guess who, decided to send a prank Karina's way.

"Shit! That's the third time I've messed up on the same charm! Lily, what am I doing wrong?" Karina whined, almost throwing down her wand in disgust.

"Your not flicking right. It's more of a nonchalant flick, not a jab-in-the-eye flick." Lily said soothingly, looking over her potions essay with a frown. "How am I supposed to get this damn essay done, when all that stupid professor does is ramble about how awful Gryffindors are!" Lily finished her voice starting to roar.

"I personally believe her wand is shoved so far up her ass that it affects her attitude." Karina smirked, "The more I think about it, the more it makes sense."

"OY! Karr!" a voice yelled from across the room.

Karina rolled her eyes.

"What do you want, Black?" she yelled back.

"Were you speaking out against my favorite teacher?"

She snorted. "Favorite my ass, Black, favorite my ass!"

Karina got back to trying to make the charm work.

The next day dawned gray and dreary.

"Oh goody. Not only does it look like it's going to rain, but we have Herbology today." Lily complained, coming out of the bathroom drying her hair.

"What's the matter? Don't you like the rain?" Karina was brushing her damp hair.

"I prefer snow."

"It's only October, don't expect snow till at least late November."

Lily sighed. "I know."

After getting dressed, the girls went down to breakfast.

"It's Friday! Woohoo!" Karina smiled, "Quidditch match tomorrow. We'll have the common room to ourselves! By the way, did you hear who the new Beater and Chaser are?"

Lily looked up from her cereal, "No…who?"

Karina looked up with a face that mocked shock, "Well our dear Mr. Potter is chaser, and Mr. Black as the new beater."

"Oh my! No wonder I hadn't heard, such modest people." Lily giggled.

Then, the first of the post owls showed up. A tawny one headed straight for Karina and Lily with a scarlet envelope in its beak.

"Oh no! Didn't Pettigrew get one of these last year? It's a Howler right?" Karina prodded it timidly. It started smoking. Down the table, the Mauraders started laughing.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Karina stated, as she opened the smoking Howler.

"I PERSONALLY BELIEVE HER WAND IS SHOVED SO FAR UP HER ASS THAT IT AFFECTS HER ATTITUDE!" Karina's voice echoed around the hall, everyone staring at her. She showed no emotion, " THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT THE MORE IT MAKES SENSE!" Then, in a voice exactly like Karina's, some words she never spoke started bouncing off the walls. "THAT PROFESSOR HASTA NEEDS TO LEARN HER PLACE! I WOULD LOVE TO BLAST HER TO NEXT TUESDAY THEN SEE IF SHE EVER BOTHERS ME AGAIN!"

Suddenly, the Howler burst into flames, and Karina saw Professors McGonagall and Hasta hurrying over to Karina.

"What was that Ms. Karr?" Hasta spat.

"What did it sound like, _Professor_?" Karina said the last word menacingly.

"Ms. Karr, detention, one week, meet me in my classroom Monday night at seven." McGonagall stated, her nostrils flaring, and her lips going thinner than Karina had ever seen them go.

"Yes'm" Karina muttered, looking at the floor.

The professors walked away, and Karina grabbed her bag, followed by Lily who was trying to calm her friend down.

"I'm going to KILL those Mauraders! I'll curse them all the way to July!" Karina muttered venomously.

"Karina, don't so anything rash! You could get kicked out!" Lily pleaded.

"Rash, RASH!" Karina voice rose at least two octaves. "I'll show you rash!"

"Karina, please, you'll get more detention, and you could get points taken away." Lily's voice was desperate now.

"Fine! Fine! FINE! Oh but they'll pay, when they least expect it."

Karina spent the weekend in a sulky mood; she was too busy plotting her revenge to do anything else.

Karina's detentions consisted of her dusting and polishing all of the trophies in the trophy room, muggle style. Karina didn't mind this too much, as she always had to do things of the sort at her house.

"So, have you decided what you're going to do for revenge?" Lily asked on the Saturday of the quidditch match.

"Yup, we'll have to go up to their dorms though…" Karina led into a stream of cuss words.

"Alright, tell me." Lily said grinning evilly.

"Well, I seem to remember Potter saying something about 'embarrassing baby pictures' his mom sent for him to look at…" Karina left off smirking.

"I like the potential that sentence holds…" Lily said standing up and heading towards the boys dorm they had gone in so many times to pull pranks.

As soon as the Gryffindors entered the common room, Karina and Lily could tell they had won. There was so much commotion it was impossible for anyone to think. But soon, the commotion of winning was full of sniggers and whispers of "Look at that!" and "Are those pictures of Potter?"

They quietly crept to the edge of the girl's dorm stairs and looked over. All over the walls were blown up pictures of a baby James Potter doing all sorts of embarrassing things, ie: taking a bath, eating dirt…

"Oh, this is so worth the detentions I had to put up with." Karina smiled.

"Look at his face." Lily giggled pointing.

He was a bright red, and he finally came out of a stupor and began pulling them down, cursing all the way. He finally got them down and everyone forgot about it and started creating a party.

"FOR HE'S A JOLLY GOOD FELLLLLOOOOOWWWW! WHICH NOBADY CAN DENY!" all the Gryffindors sang to James Potter, all except two second years that were sitting on the landing of the girls dormitories rolling their eyes.

"Wanna go down? They are playing good music, and I'm hungry." Lily said suddenly.

"Sure."

They went down, and sat on a couch singing along to the songs they knew and talking about how stupid quidditch was when Karina went up to get more food. That's when Sirius walked over to Lily.

"Why the long face Evans? We were excellent in the pitch."

"You arrogant prat. You got Karina in trouble for your own amusement!" Lily's green eyes flashed dangerously.

"Not just for ours, the whole school enjoyed it!" James said, sinking down next to her. "She needed to loosen up anyways."

"YOU ARE SUCH AN ASS, POTTER!" Lily screamed, then ran up the stairs to her dorm.

Karina walked back over to the couch, saw Black and Potter, and then realized what happened. She walked up to the dorm just in time to hear a muffled scream.

"That makes it feel better doesn't it?"

"Yup, screaming into a pillow always works."

The next few weeks were rather dull, by Hogwarts standards at least, then, about a week before Christmas break, Lily and Karina got letters from home.

Karina's made her tear up the parchment.

__

Karina Love,

Sorry to worry you dear, but your father is in one of his moods, and absolutely refuses to have you home for the holidays, so you are going to have to stay at school. I'm awfully sorry love, but Sam has run off with her new boyfriend, and your father is drinking more and more. I send my love and so does Sam. Don't let this bother you, he'll come around.

Love,

Mummy

Karina looked up a little scared, and a little sad. She muttered something inaudible.

"Didn't quite catch that Kari." Lily said cheerily, but stop smiling when she saw her friend's face. "What happened?" Karina told her about the letter.

"I'm so….oh." she still remembered the last time she had said sorry to Karina about her father.

"What's your say?" Karina asked, her voice shaking.

__

Little Lily,

We have wonderful news! Petunia is going on an exchange trip with her class to Ireland, and we have been invited as chaperones. Unfortunately, though, it's over the break. We hate to do this, but would you be willing to stay at Hogwarts this Christmas? We heard Karina would be staying to, so it won't be so bad. Write us back darling.

Fields of Love,

Mum and Daddy.

Lily looked up smiling.

"Mum and Daddy are going with Petunia on a trip, so I'm staying too!"

"Really?" Karina managed a small smile.

"Yeah!"

"Maybe it won't be so bad then."

"Just maybe? I'm hurt." Lily looked away with a face that mocked hurt.

Karina just laughed.

Christmas came and went without incident, and classes started back up again.

Potions

"I'm never going to get this potion is she doesn't stop breathing down my neck." Karina hissed in Lily's ear.

"Shut up Mudbloods!" whispered a group a Slytherins, which included Snape.

Karina winced, but not at Snape. Her head was starting to hurt and people started flashing through her brain. She grabbed her head and closed her eyes.

"Karina…" Lily said.

There was James again, only it wasn't James, it couldn't be, something wasn't right. There was also a red headed gangly boy, and a girl with bushy brown hair. "_Mudblood…"_ was ringing through the air, and the girl clenched her fist as the tears welled up in her eyes.

"Mudbloods and Muggle lovers…" there was a flash of green light, people lying dead everywhere, then Karina snapped to.

She was lying on the floor of the potions dungeon, with her hands covering her ears. Her head was hurting her, and Professor Hasta was just about to take off points, when she ran out of the room, Lily following close behind.

"Karina, what happened?" Lily asked, a weird look on her face.

"I had another Sight. I have to talk to Professor Dumbledore. It was awful. Have to see Dumbledore."

"We don't know where his office is, Kari." Lily whispered soothingly.

"Well we have to find it!" Kari snapped.

"Don't bite my head off I'm trying to help."

"Sorry…"

They wandered around, trying to think of where his office might be, when they heard a soft voice behind them, "What are you looking for?"

Lily gasped, it was Dumbledore.

"We were looking for you Professor. Karina…" Karina cut her off.

"Not here. Professor, can we talk in private?"

"Why certainly. Follow me Ms. Evans, Ms. Karr."

They followed him down a passageway, and to a stone gargoyle.

Dumbledore said the password ("licorice wands") and the gargoyle moved aside to reveal a moving staircase.

Lily and Karina followed Dumbledore up the stairs, and found themselves in a lovely office, much more interesting than all the other teacher's offices.

"Have a seat, please." he motioned towards the chair, while he sat behind his desk.

Karina looked around and realized, she had had a vision of this place many times. This was where the young boy was. He had been sitting in this exact seat.

"So, now that you have found me, what is it you would like to tell me?" Dumbledore said, lacing his fingers together on his desk.

"Well, it's my Sight. I had a particularly awful vision in the dungeon." Karina whispered to her hand. "I saw a boy, who looked almost exactly like James Potter, only it couldn't have been him because I didn't recognize any of the other students with him. Then, I heard someone say… 'Mudbloods and muggle lovers…' and I saw dead people…they were everywhere, and then a green light, and I woke up on the floor in the potions dungeon." she finished a little louder than when she started, but was still talking to the floor.

He looked at her for a moment, and then said, "I believe you are having visions of he countless victims Lord Voldemort will kill."

Lily looked up sharply. A shiver passed over her. That name didn't give her a good feeling.

Karina, on the other hand took in a deep breath. The room around her started to get hazy. And suddenly, she was seeing graveyard. There were people dressed in robes with hoods that covered their faces. A man stood in the middle, laughing and leering at someone off to his side. That boy, he was tied to a tombstone. The man in the middle turned around, and his red eyes pierced Karina's and she screamed.

Lily and Dumbledore watched Karina as she scrunched up her eyes and suddenly started screaming.

"KARINA! WAKE UP! STOP SCREAMING!" Lily screamed, shaking Karina.

Karina stopped screaming, opened her eyes, and then fell back unconscious.

"KARINA!" Lily yelled.

"Calm down Lily." Professor Dumbledore said softly, "She'll be just fine. She's just overwhelmed. We'll take her down to the hospital wing, where you'll be able to stay with her." He conjured a stretcher and put Karina on it. Lily followed mutely all the way to the hospital wing. As they passed students, they stared after them, wondering what happened.

They passed by the Mauraders and they just gaped open mouthed at Lily, Karina, and Dumbledore as they passed by. Lily purposefully avoided their looks.

"Evans, what…"

Lily just quickened her pace.

They made it to the hospital wing without much fuss, but as soon as Madame Pomfrey saw Karina, she started mumbling about her 'delicate condition'.

"What happened Albus?" she asked.

"She was overwhelmed by a premonition she had. She is a Seer as you know, and she saw Voldemort." Dumbledore answered simply.

"Oh dear. A Seer. No wonder she isn't in the best shape. We haven't had a true Seer in years. They are such fragile people." Madame Pomfrey sighed.

"I know Poppy, I know. But Ms. Evans here is to stay with her. No one else should be permitted unless Ms. Karr agrees to it."

"Yes Albus, of course." Madame Pomfrey started bustling around, making a bad and getting Karina situated in it.

"Will she be okay?" Lily asked a little timidly.

"Yes dear, she'll be fine. She'll most definitely have to stay in here till she calms down, but she'll be fine."

It was Sunday afternoon by the time Karina was ready to leave, but she still broke down into hysterical sobbing if left alone for too long, so Lily was given an order to try and be with her all the time. Especially at night, that's when Karina really got upset.

Over the past few weeks, things changed. Lily and Karina became insomniacs, only sleeping during the day on weekends. The first few weeks of their new nightly habits, they were constantly tired, but they grew used to it, and became more solemn. They stayed up nights in the common room reading, or listening to music. When it rained, they would sit on the window seat in their dorm and just watch it rain, thinking. They grew even farther away from the rest of the student body than before, and only talked amongst themselves. Then, on the last day before heading back for the summer, a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw girl walked up and sat next to them underneath the tree they were under.

"Hey." the Hufflepuff said smiling.

"Hello." Lily said.

"I'm Sarah Finch, I remember sitting with you two first year on those dreadful boats."

"I remember. I'm Lily Evans."

"I'm Elizabeth Hwin. I was the other girl."

"Pleased to meetcha!" Karina smiled, holding out her hand.

They all shook and just sat there looking around, when Sarah started up a conversation.

"So, how have you been? I mean, during Herbology, you two have become so…secluded."

"I don't really want to talk about it." Karina said shortly, but she smiled anyways.

"Well that's alright. We just met anyways." Elizabeth said.

"Yeah. So what about the Potions exam? Did that bitch treat the Gryffindors the same way she treated the Hufflepuffs?" Sarah asked, frowning.

"And the Ravenclaws." Elizabeth added, her face sour.

"You have no idea. And we have the Slytherins in our class so it's about three times as worse." Lily groaned.

They went on about Professor Hasta for a while, and then moved onto other subjects. Soon, it was time for the leaving feast and they all headed in, promising to sit with each other on the train.

All too soon it seemed, the feast was over. Karina and Lily stayed up in the common room all night talking about the events of the year and wondering what would be in store for the summer.

The train ride back was a blur of many games of Exploding Snap, and chess, laughter, and singed eyebrows.

"You will write to us won't you?" Liz (Elizabeth) said tearfully getting off the train and gathering her belongings.

"Don't mind her, she is really emotional." Sarah laughed and grabbed her things.

"We'll write. Promise." Karina and Lily held out their pinkies.

"See ya!" Lily and Karina called, heading back through the barrier.

"LILY! KARINA!" a warm motherly vice called.

"MOMMY!" Lily cried and ran as fast as she could to her mother's embrace.

"Hey flower. How was school?" Mr. Evans asked.

"DADDY! Your home!" she pried away from her mother and grabbed onto her father.

"Hello Mrs. Evans, Mr. Evans." Karina said, a little shyly.

"Well Karina Karr, you have never been so formal with us in all your life!"

"Sorry Mr. Jim, I haven't been feeling myself lately."

"Come here love." Mrs. Evans pulled her into a hug.

"Mrs. Daisy." Karina hugged her back.

"KARINA!"

"MOMMY!" Karina dashed over to her mom, and ran into about fifty people along the way.

"Damn girl. She did the same thing last year." Sirius Black exclaimed, watching Karina being smothered in her mother's embrace.

"Calm down Mr. Black." James said, helping his friend up.

"Stop being so damn polite Mr. Potter." Sirius said, his playful smile beginning to form.

"Yes Mr. Black."

"Shut up Potter."

Grinning stupidly, both boys went to meet their mothers, who were glaring daggers at each other.

"Oh boy. See ya mate." James waved to Sirius.

"Bye James." Sirius headed towards his mother, his grin slowly turning to a frown with each step he took.

Back to Karina and Lily

"How have you been."? Mrs. Karr said smiling.

"Just peachy Mummy dear."

"You lie."

"You read me like a book. I'm an insomniac."

"Your father is going to love that."

"Don't I know it."

(AN: okay, this is my longest chapter so far I believe, and I don't think anyone is reading this, my first few chapters were awful. Oh well. If you are reading this, I appreciate you!)


	6. Stop banging on the wall!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling does. Hell, if I did, I would be one of the most well known authors ever. Boy would I love that…

~*~

This was one summer Lily would never forget. This was when things really started to change.

Summer before third year. Lily and Karina were becoming teenagers, and hating it. Petunia still kept her attitude with Lily the whole summer, and Karina's dad came home drunk almost every night. But, even with these dark things, there were darker ones. Voldemort was coming more out into the open. His Death Eaters weren't hiding in the shadows so much, and more and more Muggles were being killed each week.

Sam, Karina's sister had moved out, and was living with her newly wed husband, Jake. Sam was pregnant, and happier than she has ever been, now not being under her father's hating eye.

Petunia had graduated that year, and was spending as much time away from home as possible. She still couldn't stand being within twenty feet of Karina or Lily, and made it known.

Now, things didn't start to become serious until one night…

"Lils, I can't wait to go back. Dad gets worse everyday." Karina said softly.

They were sitting on the old rusted swings. It was just getting dark, and there was a light breeze blowing about.

"I can't wait either. Petunia is driving me out of my bloody mind!"

There was a yell of rage coming form across the park. Karina recognized the hunched figure as her drunken father and grabbed Lily's hand.

"RUN!" Karina screamed and pulled Lily along.

They ran down the road, but even in his drunken state, Mr. Karr caught up with them. He flung Lily from Karina and started to slap her. She stood her ground.

Lily was afraid. She quietly made her way around to her house and grabbed the phone. She called the police, and they were there in minutes. Karina was covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises were beginning to form. But she wasn't crying. No emotion was on her face at all. As soon as the police grabbed her father, she walked into her house, up the stair and into her room.

"Kari, honey, are you alright?" Mrs. Karr asked, trying to still Karina, who was pacing in her room.

"I'm fine. I stopped him from hurting you. That's all that matters." she started mumbling to herself.

"Honey, what are we going to do? They're going to put him in jail."

"And if they do? He deserves it. As long as your safe." 

"What about money for Hogwarts?" her mother asked timidly.

"We get all his money. I read up on this. We have every right to his money. First, we have to send some to Sam, for the baby. I get some, and you get the rest. They witnessed him, so we could get money from the government. He won't see me for a long time." Karina finished her sentence with a look of satisfaction on her face.

"I'll get some money from the bank tomorrow, then I'm off."

"What? Honey, don't leave me!" her mother cried.

"I can't stay here. Don't you understand? At least not for the rest of the summer. Sam might come back now that he isn't here, but I have to go. I belong there, in the Wizarding world." Karina tried desperately to explain.

Her mother just nodded and walked out. Karina sighed and walked back out of the house. She slowly went down the street absently heading to the swings where she had so often ran before.

"Kari? Are you okay?" Lily's voice came from behind her.

~Lily~

Lily had watched Karina get beaten before, but that was nothing to this. As soon as she called the police, and they had left, she sat on her front porch.

**~Flashback~**

"C'mon Kari! Let's go!" a small Lily said, pulling her friend back down the street.

"I dunno, daddy looked real mad when we saw him, and I don't wanna get hit." an even tinier Karina said, looking scared. It was true, Karina had always been three inches shorter than Lily her whole life.

"Well, you can come with me!" Lily declared, as though it were obvious.

"I can't! I have to protect Sam and mommy. I had a bad dream the other night that something real bad was going to happen to them!" 

"Dreams aren't real!"

"Mine are. Don't you remember, I said I had a dream that you would break your arm on the bars, and you did!"

"But Kari, I don't want you to get hurt."

"But I can't let them get hurt for me."

**~End Flashback~**

Lily saw her friend of forever emerge from her house, so she followed.

'Kari was always so grown up for her age. It wasn't fair.' she reminisced.

"Kari? Are you okay?" she called.

"I'm leaving for Diagon Alley tomorrow. I'm staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the rest of break. I can't stay here. It makes me think too much."

"I'll come too."

"You don't have too…"

"Yeah, I do. You're my best friend. It's my job."

Kari finally turned around and smiled. "Thanks."

Lily caught up with her and linked arms.

"We'll be going home in five days." 

"Five days…" Kari repeated.

The next day, Lily and Karina took the Underground to London, and from there, a bus to the corner by the Leaky Cauldron.

They walked in and greeted Tom.

"How are you, Tom?" Karina asked.

"Delightful. And yourself?"

"Just peachy. Say, can we get a room. For the both of us. Till September first of course."

"Not going back home?"

"Not for a while." Karina smiled.

After unloading all their things in their rooms, they walked out to Diagon Alley itself.

"KARINA! LILY!" 

They turned around, and saw no one other than Liz and Sarah pushing through the crowds toward them. Big group hugs were given and they made their way down the alley.

"I like the new look." Sarah said, looking at Karina's new attire.

She had gone from jeans and T-shirts, to black bondage pants, and a black spaghetti strap. She was no longer the same person, so she felt no need to dress like her. And she said so.

"So all your wardrobe is as dreary as this?" Liz asked smiling.

"Just as morbid."

"How wonderful."

Lily laughed.

After getting all their school supplies, they headed back to the Leaky Cauldron, when they ran head on into no other than Severus Snape.

"Out of my way Mudbloods." he spat at the ground in front of him.

"Hey, watch what your saying to ladies, Snivellus." a voice said behind the girls. It was the Mauraders.

"We don't need your help." Lily said dully.

"Why fair Lilith, of course you do." James said giving a cocky smile.

"Look who's gone and gotten more mature." Karina said sarcastically.

"What's with the new look Karr?"

"I was looking for a change Black, got a problem?"

"Would you please not start fighting?" Remus said from behind everyone.

James and Sirius started mumbling, while the girls walked away, yelling bye back to Remus.

"Remus is so adorable." Liz said as they sat down in the Leaky Cauldron.

"You like him?" Karina asked curiously.

"Kinda, I mean, he's the only decent Marauder, and I think he happens to be quite cute."

"That's better than liking Black or Potter." Lily said darkly.

"Hey, they sure have gotten better to look at over the summer." Sarah added in, rather shyly.

"What?? Black and Potter? They are such prats." Karina said sharply.

"You know now that they are growing up, half the female population will be going after them." Lily predicted.

"I have no doubt in my mind. Society always finds the thing worse for them, and goes for it." Karina agreed.

"Such a negative view on society." Liz grinned.

"Negativity is the essence of life." Karina supplied.

~Back with the Mauraders~

"James, you git! What was that for!" Remus said, exasperation in his voice.

"Hey, I was only trying out the new charm my parents said I have."

"Apparently it isn't charm because the girls walked off mate." Sirius grinned.

"It worked at the beach." James said sulkily.

"Well that's Lily and Karina for you, they aren't some girls at the beach." Remus tried to explain.

"What do you think of her new look?" Sirius asked.

"I don't know. Its different from anything I've ever seen." James shrugged.

"Hey guys!" a little dirty blonde haired boy said, catching his breath.

"Hey Peter. Have you seen Karina and Lily?"

Peter winced. "Yeah. They didn't seem thrilled to see me either."

"What did you do?" James sighed.

~A few minutes earlier~

"I think Potter likes Lily." Sarah said randomly.

"WHAT!"

Sarah, Karina, and Liz laughed.

"That's NOT funny. Don't ever suggest such a horrid thing again."

They kept laughing. Lily just looked so funny.

"Hey guys. Have you seen James, Sirius, and Remus?" a voice said.

All four girls looked up and frowned. Peter Pettigrew was standing at their table.

Karina shifted uneasily in her chair, she wasn't fond of Peter at all.

"We last saw them in the Alley." Lily said coolly.

"Okay. Thanks." he had said, and then, he tripped, fell, knocked over everyone's drinks, and stained Liz's clothes. Now, there is one important thing you should know about Liz. She is obsessed with her appearance. Imagine a girl like that covered in Butterbeer, not just covered, but also dripping in it.

Peter let out a laugh, which turned into a squeak of terror as he ran from Liz.

~The present~

All three other boys were laughing their heads off.

"It's not funny!" he protested squeakily, "They're coming now!" With that he took off running faster than any of them had ever seen him run before.

The four girls caught up with the Mauraders and stopped.

Liz was the only one not dripping in Butterbeer, Karina was too. The boys noticed something different about her appearance.

"I AM GOING TO KILL HIM!" Liz was screaming at the top of her lungs, making people stare.

"Calm down Liz, you might break a vein." Sarah said so seriously that everyone started laughing.

Liz finally did calm down, and Peter came out.

"It was an accident! Please believe me!" he called out, still form a distance.

"Alright. You're forgiven." Liz called out.

Peter came closer and Karina shivered.

"Lily, let's go." she whispered.

"Uh, guys, we have some things to do, so if you would excuse us." Lily said, and then backed away from the group. That's when Remus noticed. It wasn't until later that he got to speak with the guys about it though.

"Did you notice anything different about Karina?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Kind of. But I don't know what it was." Sirius said, smiling at a bunch of girls walking by. They all started giggling.

"Did you notice her arms were all bruised, cut, and scraped up?"

"Hey, they were. What do you think happened?" James asked, running his hand through his already messed up hair, giving another group of girls a massive attack of squeals.

"It was probably just when I knocked that table on them." Peter said looking around.

"No, the cuts looked a little healed, but fairly new." Remus said thoughtfully.

"Just ask her next time you see her." 

"Oh yeah, how do you think that conversation will turn out, Sirius?" Remus said sarcastically.

Sirius reached up and touched his face. "Probably a smack across my beautiful face."

"Keep saying that to yourself." James laughed.

"Don't deny my good looks." Sirius said with a straight face.

"Stop arguing. Let's go back to the Leaky Cauldron. We should get our rooms before there aren't any left." the always sensible Remus said.

"Fine. I guess we always have a week to look for a new broomstick." James said shrugging, and walking off with Remus.

The four boys walked to the Leaky Cauldron and waved to Tom.

"Hey boys. How can I help you?" Tom asked.

"We'd like two rooms…" 

"Till September first." Tom interrupted.

"Yup." Remus smiled.

"Well, the only rooms I have left are on either side of those young ladies rooms." Tom said, pointing to Lily, Karina, Liz, and Sarah.

"Alright." Remus said taking the keys. James and Sirius were on their way to talk to the girls.

"I sense trouble." Peter mumbled.

~The girls~

"Next time I see that Peter Pettigrew, I'm going to murder him!" Liz said, still trying to ring the butterbeer out of her wet shirt.

"Do any of you get a bad feeling around Pettigrew?" Karina asked uneasily.

"He's just a little worm that wiggled his way into that group." Sarah said bitterly, feeling her sticky hair.

"I just get this awful feeling when around him." Karina shivered, even though it was quite warm.

"No, I don't get a feeling like that." Sarah said absently.

"Maybe it's your Sight." Lily whispered.

"I think it is. But what is he going to do? I can't figure it out." Karina whispered clutching her fist angrily.

"How are you ladies?"

"Leave Potter." Lily said calmly.

"Oh, but we're staying for the rest of the week!" Sirius said brightly.

"WHAT!" four female voices screeched.

"Don't sound so disappointed." James grumbled, sitting next to Lily.

Sirius plopped down next to Karina, when Remus and Peter came up.

"Here's you guy's key." Remus said, handing it to James. "You have room six and we have room three."

"Ah man!" Lily and Karina groaned.

"What!" James and Sirius exclaimed.

"Nothing…" they mumbled.

"According to Tom, we are on either side of their rooms. The only one's left."

"YES! We are next to their rooms!" James yelled. Him and Sirius high-fived.

"That means that we're next to your room." Remus said smiling at Liz and Sarah. Liz started squirming, then smiled back.

Lily and Karina groaned.

~Later that Night~

"Stop banging on the wall!" Karina yelled.

"At least we're insomniacs." Lily said reasonably.

"True. Bullshit." Karina said.

"Crap." Sarah said, picking up all the cards.

They were playing bullshit, a muggle card game.

"We're at the door." Sirius called from the hall.

"Well stop banging on the door then." Karina yelled.

"Let us in!" James said.

"NO!" Lily yelled.

"You leave us no choice then." Sirius sighed. There was a clicking noise, then a "TA DA!" and the Mauraders were in their room.

"Get out!" Karina threw a pillow at them.

"No."

"Fine then. Please leave."

"Let me think about it…no."

"UGH!" Karina screamed, then buried her face in a pillow.

The rest of the week pretty much went like that, till it was finally time to leave.

"YES! Back to Hogwarts! Finally!" Lily screamed, dragging her trunk out to the bus stop.

"We can get away from them there!" Sarah yelled, jumping into the air.

They were all standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus. Passer byers were gawking at them, because of their owls, but they were ecstatic.

~Ten minutes later~

"The train! Am I dreaming?" Karina said, with a spacey look on her face.

"No! And neither am I!" Liz squealed.

A group of first years looked at them.

"I think we're scaring the first years." Lily laughed.

"Good. They know not to mess with us!" Sarah grinned, and walked down the aisle.

They found and empty compartment and sat in it.

"Guess what I have!" Karina exclaimed suddenly.

"WHAT!"

"A radio!"

"That's all?" Liz asked.

"What do you mean! Music!" Karina switched it on to her muggle music station.

"What's that?" asked Sarah, who was a half blood living in a wizard music world.

"Muggle music." Karina said absently setting up for another game of bullshit.

"Well, I'm taking muggle studies this year, so, maybe this will come in handy, all the muggle things I'm learning." Liz smiled.

"Your taking muggle studies too!" Sarah exclaimed.

"Yep!"

"So are we!" Lily said happily.

"That means we'll have a class together. All of us!" Liz said smiling.

The girls were tired of playing bullshit, so Karina pulled out a deck of Uno cards. They were well into their second game, when two very unwelcome people showed up in their compartment.

"Well. Look at the mudbloods and muggle lovers playing a stupid muggle game." a female voice sneered.

"And what's it to you?" Karina said, without even looking up, "Uno!"

"What is with you and doing that!" Sarah sighed, and drew seven cards.

"Oh, it nothing to us, because you are nothing." a male voice said.

"Go away Snape." Lily said, "UNO!"

"Damn. I was too slow." Karina frowned.

Liz looked up. "If there's something you want, spit it out. If not, your ruining my concentration, slime balls."

The woman smirked. "We want you dead, but that will wait, and what a sweet day it will be."

"Well, until that day, leave." Karina stood up and went to shut the compartment, when her head started to hurt.

The same woman was sitting in a chair, all grimy, but looking proud.

"…we will be rewarded, we alone tried to find him…"

She heard screams, and felt pain, her eyes rolled up into her head, and all she could hear were people pleading and screaming.

~Lily~

"KARINA!"

She ran forward and grabbed her.

"Go send an owl ahead!" Lily ordered to Sarah. She nodded and headed out.

"Liz, get them out of here!"

Liz held out her wand and told them to leave.

"No." Snape said.

"Snivellus! Just who I was looking for!" James voice traveled up the aisle.

"Bellatrix, what are you doing?" Sirius asked, looking in the compartment. "What did you do!" 

"I did nothing. The mudblood just fainted." she sneered.

"Get away from here." he growled.

"Yes little cousin." 

Bellatrix and Snape walked away.  
"What happened?" Remus asked.

"Get out. Nothing I can't handle. All the people will make it worse." Lily snapped.

"I sent the owl." Sarah came back flushed.

"Good." Lily propped Karina up on the bench.

"Will she be okay?" Sirius asked, walking up.

"Yes, this happened before, go!" Lily pushed them out, and was about to close the compartment door, when she pulled out her wand. "If you tell _anyone_ I will make it so your own mother's won't recognize you." she growled threateningly, and closed the door.

"Is she alright?" Sarah asked. Karina was twitching, and beginning to sweat.

"She'll better when we get to the school. We'll be there in about twenty minutes." Lily said looking at her watch.

"We should change." 

"Yeah, we should. Thanks Liz."

They all changed watching Karina to make sure she'd be okay.

~Twenty minutes later~

"How are we going to get her off?" Liz asked Lily.

"I don't know."

The compartment door opened, and Professor Dumbledore was standing there with Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey.

"Oh dear, she saw something again didn't she?"

"It must be Poppy." Dumbledore magicked a stretcher and lifted her onto it.

"Come with me ladies. She'll want friends around, and I must talk to you about it."

"Yes Professor." three girls said softly.

They all trooped of the train. An open carriage came up and they climbed into it.

Up at the castle, they walked swiftly past all the students and up to the hospital wing.

"Minerva, would you please go down to the feast, you have the Sorting to attend too. I have to talk to these students."

"Yes Albus." and she left.

Karina was set on a bed, and Dumbledore did something with his wand and she woke up.

"Where am I?"

"In the hospital wing." Dumbledore said softly.

"What happened?"

"I was hoping you would tell us that."

"Well, Snape, and Bellatrix Black were standing in our compartment, and I got up to shut the door, when I saw her older, saying they would be rewarded, that they were the only ones that tried to find him. And then I heard screams, and felt their pain, and then I was here."

"She must be one of Voldemort's future Death Eaters." Liz and Sarah flinched. "Don't be afraid to say his name. That only increases your fear."

"Yes sir." they whispered.

"I must go down to the feast now. I'll send some house elves up with some food for you." then, Dumbledore left.

"Karina…are you going to tell us." Liz asked, sitting at the foot of her bed.

Karina looked up. "I'm a Seer."

"Wow. You must be one of the only muggle born Seers ever." Sarah breathed in.

"Its awful." 

"I'm sorry." Liz whispered.

"WHY IS EVERYONE SORRY! I DON'T WANT YOU TO BE SORRY!"

"She doesn't know. Calm down Kari." Lily put her arm on Kari.

"Why is 'sorry' pop into everyone's mind first! Why not, 'I'll be there for you!'"

"Cause since we're friends, we think that's implied!" Sarah said, her voice rising.

Karina took a deep breath. "I'm just tired of people saying that. I don't like pity. I don't need it."

"I'll take that as an apology. I accept." Sarah said.

Karina made a small smile. "Liz…"

"I guess I accept, just don't ever yell at me that way again if you value your head!" Liz smiled.

"Excuse us misses, but your food is here!" a tiny voice squeaked from beside the bed.

"Thank you." Karina smiled warmly.

"Your welcome miss!" the three little house elves said, and they walked away.

"Food! I'm starving!"

They all ate the food, but no matter how much they ate, more was always there.

They all left the hospital wing later on that night going to their own common rooms.


	7. The Redder the Better laughs

(AN: I hope my chapters are getting better. I mean, I'm really trying.)

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. Not me. I wish, but, wishing and reality are two different things.

****

Fan33: I appreciate the review.

All other reviewers…thank you for the encouragement!

~New Classes~

Karina bounded down the stairs from the dorm, dressed and ready for classes.

"You know, considering you get no sleep, you are unbelievably bouncy today." Lily said smiling, and bouncing down after her.

"I would say the same to you Ms. Evans."

"Well Ms. Karr, if don't hurry, we're going to miss breakfast, and you know how disagreeable I get without my cereal."

Kari laughed, and then shuddered. "Boy do I know."

"Hey, I resent that!" Lily landed a light punch on Kari's arm.

They scrambled out of the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall, where the mail was just beginning to arrive.

Lily and Kari sat down at the Gryffindor table and looked up to see if any owls were headed their way.

"Karina, is that your owl?" Lily asked.

"No… why?"

"Because it looks like it's going to land in front of us." Just then it landed in front of them and dropped an official looking letter, addressed to Karina.

__

Dear Ms. Karr,

The Muggle Ministry has requested that you give them a testimony on the events that happened on August twenty third. Please meet with the Ministry officials on Saturday, September ninth in Hogsmeade to discuss the events. Meet the official at the Three Broomsticks at three. Thank you for your time.

"Oh goody." Karina rolled her eyes.

"What?" Lily asked, her mouth full of cereal.

"Swallow please, that's not attractive."

Lily swallowed, and then said, "What?"

"I have to meet a Muggle Ministry official to 'discuss the events' of that night." Karina repeated, making quote marks with her fingers.

"Sounds like fun." Lily started back on her cereal.

"Hey Karina, can I talk to you."

Karina turned around and saw a Ravenclaw boy standing there, looking rather nervous. She recognized him as someone in their year. His name was Jason Myers.

"Sure Jason." Karina stood up and follow him out to the Great Hall.

"So, what did you want to say?" she asked looking directly at him

"Well…ummm…you know we can go to Hogsmeade this year, well, I was wondering if you would go with me." he looked up blushing.

She blushed too, "Well, sure. I'll go with you. When do we go?"

He smiled. "Its in three weeks."

"Okay, but I have to spend sometime with Lily, it is our first Hogsmeade visit."

"Alright. Sounds good." Jason said.

"Well, I'm going to go, I haven't eaten breakfast. I'll see you later on okay?" she kissed his cheek, and flushing, went back to the table.

~Lily~

Lily watched Karina leave with Jason, and wondered what was going on. She shrugged it off till Karina came back with her face almost as bright as Lily's hair.

"What happened?" Lily exclaimed. People looked down the table at them.

"Kari!" Liz screeched, came up and sat down with them. "You said yes! I'm so glad!"

"Well…" Karina blushed even more.

"WHAT HAPPENED!" Lily screamed, she was beginning to get angry.

"Well, Jason asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him, and I said yes, and I kissed him on the cheek." Karina said really quickly, turning redder and redder.

"WHAT!" two voices screeched, Lily and Sarah's. Sarah had just come up.

"WOW!" Sarah said and smiled.

"Good for you!" Lily laughed.

~Mauraders~

The Mauraders were just coming down to breakfast when they heard Karina and Jason's conversation, and looked up just in time to see Karina kiss him.

"WHAT!" Sirius yelped.

"Calm down mate." James said, running his hand through his hair, making the closest group of girls near them swoon.

"I was going to ask her!"

Remus snorted.

"What's so funny?" 

"Nothing."

Peter looked up and said, "If you liked her, why did you bother her so much?"

"I didn't bother her that much." Sirius turned red as they walked into the Great Hall.

"What's wrong bitty baby cousin?" 

"Go away Bella." Sirius growled.

"Aww, your little mudblood friend a little sore with you?" Snape sneered.

"Shove it Snivellus!" James jumped to Sirius' defense.

Snape had his wand out.

"Going to hex me Snivellus?" James smirked.

"No, but I will! _Furnuculus!"_ Bellatrix yelled, and the hex hit James.

"BLACK, POTTER!" Professor Hasta's voice cut through the silence, as everyone looked towards the Slytherin table.

"Potter's a little preoccupied Professor." Sirius said, holding back his sarcasm as much as possible.

"Five points from each of you! And be glad it isn't detention for egging students on to duel you." Hasta walked away and was just out of earshot when Sirius let out a stream of cuss words.

"Baby Black shouldn't be saying such words." Bella mocked him.

"Don't forget we are the same age Bella." Sirius helped James up and dragged him out of the hall, hoping no one would notice his face.

"OY! BLACK!"

"What Evans!"

"STOP!"

Sirius stopped, turned around and was face to face with Lily, Karina, Sarah, and Liz.

Lily muttered the counter curse under her breath and walked on to class.

"You know James, you should thank her." Remus said.

"Let's just go to class and forget this ever happened." he mumbled and walked on to Transfiguration, first class of the day.

~Karina and Lily~

"Bye Sarah! Bye Liz!" Lily and Kari called walking into the Transfiguration classroom.

They sat at their regular seats in the middle of the room.

"So, Lily. Do you like Potter?"

"What! Why would you think such a ridiculous thing like that?" 

"Well, you just helped him…"

"What would you have done?" Lily demanded.

"The same. Alright. You win." Kari smiled.

"I knew there was a decent person under there." Lily patted Kari's head.

"Don't push it."

"Settle down class." McGonagall's voice snapped through the room.

Karina took out a piece of parchment and wrote on it,

Lils,

Just wait til after class!

~Kari

Lily looked at it, smiled and mouthed, "You're on!"

~Mauraders~

"Maybe I should ask Evans to Hogsmeade." Sirius said shortly after she walked off.

"No!"

"What, do you like her Jamesie?" 

"Well, you like Karr, right?" Remus said, looking at Sirius from the corner of his eye.

"Well, I wouldn't say that I like her…" Sirius said uncomfortably.

"I would. You've been staring at her since we got back." Peter said absently.

Sirius blushed and James snickered.

"Is there something you find funny Mr. Potter?" McGonagall asked.

"No Professor." James started laughing.

"Potter, what have I been talking about for the past ten minutes?"

"Animagus wizards." James said confidently.

"What about them?"

"Laws, signs, things that can go wrong…"

"Alright Mr. Potter." McGonagall eyed him.

~Lily and Karina~

"We get to go to Muggle Studies now! New class and it's with Sarah and Liz!" Lily smiled and linked arms with Karina.

"I know, but we have to do a two foot essay on Animagus for McGonagall. Due tomorrow!" Karina whined.

"We'll get it done, it can't be too hard. There's plenty of books out there on it."

"Yeah, I guess you would know." Karina sighed and walked into classroom.

"LILY! KARINA!" two voices yelled. Liz and Sarah were there already and pointing at two seats behind them, indicating that Lily and Karina should sit there.

"Hey. Thanks for saving us seats." 

"No prob Lils." Sarah smiled.

"Hey, look, it's Jason, Kari! Ask him if he wants to sit with us." Sarah whispered.

"Yeah, and his cute friend." Lily giggled.

"Alright," Karina whispered, "JASON!" He turned around and smiled.

"Hey Karina!"

"Why don't you come sit over here."

"Alright." Jason came over and sat in the desk next to Karina, while Michael sat in the one in front of him.

"Who's your friend?" Karina asked him.

"That's Michael. I think he knows you… don't you?"

"Yeah, I do." he looked at Lily, and they both blushed.

"Hello girls! It seems we have a class together!" 

Four groans were heard as Sirius sat down behind Karina.

"Do sound so disappointed! We know you love us."

"Shove it Potter!" Lily said as James sat next to Sirius behind her.

"Don't mind them." Remus' said, his voice cool and collected. He sat in front of Liz and Peter sat next to him.

At that time, the Professor walked in, cutting their conversation off.

"Hello class. I'm Professor Lawrence, welcome to Muggle Studies. How many muggle borns do we have in here?" she asked, looking around.

Karina and Lily were the only two people who raised their hands.

"Is any one half?"

No Liz, Sarah, Jason, and Michael, and some other people raised their hands.

"Well, two muggle borns and some half bloods. I guess that'll do."

Half way through the class, they were taking notes on the muggle Darwin, and his theory of evolution, which everyone laughed at.

"He thinks we 'evolved' from monkeys?" Sirius let out a bark like laugh.

"He's a muggle, it's what he thinks, and it's not up to you to judge him." Karina snapped and went back to copying the notes.

A few minutes later, a note was going under Karina's nose towards Lily. Lily opened it, and blushed, it was from Michael.

__

Lily, 

Will you go to Hogsmeade with me?

Michael

Lily smiled and nodded back at him. They both flushed.

The bell rang soon and Karina went out holding Jason's hand and Lily went out holding Michael's hand. Liz and Sarah followed them giggling the whole way to lunch.

~Mauraders~

Sirius was looking at the notes on the board, when he realized what Darwin meant.

"He thinks we 'evolved' from monkeys?" he let out a bark like laugh, which earned him a retort from Karina.

"He's a muggle, it's what he thinks, and it's not up to you to judge him." 

He stopped laughing. She hadn't even turned around to say it.

He finished copying down the notes, mumbling all the way. The bell rang, and he heard James swear.

"Damnit!"

"What is it?" 

"That prat Michael asked Lily to go to Hogsmeade with him, and she said yes."

"You should have asked her first." Remus said, burying his face in a book.

"That's easy for you to say. I don't see you trying to get a girl to go with you."

Remus blushed.

"There's a girl you want to ask?" Sirius asked, dumbfounded.

"Well…I want to ask Liz.," he mumbled, turning even redder.

"You should ask, I heard her talking about you. I think she likes you." Peter said, sitting on the bench and piling food onto his plate.

"Yeah, you should, and when she says yes, get Karr and Evans to break up with those idiotic guys and go wit us." 

"How about I go with the first part of your plan, the part about me asking Liz, and her saying yes, and skip all the rest. Sound good Sirius?" Remus laughed and sat down.

"Well, you better ask her out quick before someone else does." James said, looking over at the Ravenclaw table.

"I think I'll go now." Remus got up rather nervously and headed over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Uh, Liz, could I ask you something?" he started blushing. 'Don't blush, not know…' he thought to himself.

"Sure Lupin, I mean Remus." she blushed too.

"Well, I was wondering if you would go to Hogsmeade with me…"

"Yes!" she squeaked, then blushed even redder.

"Alright then. See you." Remus walked back to Gryffindor table smiling.

"Aw man! She said yes! Now we all have to find a date." 

"Don't whine Sirius. We'll just ask one of our adoring fans." James said, winking at some girls down the table. 

"Yeah, I guess so." Sirius ran his hand through his hair, and it fell back into place, making some girls giggle.

"You two are impossible." Remus sighed as he started eating a chicken leg.

"What class do we have next?" Peter asked.

"Double History of Magic. Binns'll just have a lot of notes for us. Oh joy." James finished sarcastically.

"Hey, Quidditch try outs tonight so no worries!" Sirius smiled, and winked at James, making him choke on the pumpkin juice he was trying to swallow.

*Cough* "Sirius, mate, never do that again!" *cough* 

"Why, the girls tend to like it." he gave the girls down the table a roguish wink, one fell out of her seat, "See mate, you should be considered lucky."

"I can see you, your brown skin shining in the sun…" came a voice from down the table, and it was Karina and Lily singing to a group of sixth years.

"Out on the road today I saw a black flag sticker on a Cadillac a little voice inside my head said don't look back you can never look back…"

"Why are they singing?" Peter asked, looking down at them in awe.

"I don't know, but they aren't bad." Remus said looking up.

Pretty soon the whole Hall was staring at them.

~Lily and Karina~

"Look, Remus went to ask Liz!" Lily exclaimed.

"They're both so red!" Karina laughed.

"Hey, Karina, Lily?"

"Yeah?" they answered at the same time turning around. It was Meredith Green.

"Um, I had this project for Muggle Studies I was supposed to do over the summer, and I totally forgot, and since you muggle borns, I was wondering if you would help me out."

"Sure. What is it?" Karina asked.

"Wait, you have to help me to." Helen Farthers said.

"Alright, what is it?"

"Well, we were supposed to memorize a muggle song…" Meredith started.

"Oh goody! I can so do this!" Karina exclaimed.

"Which song?" Lily asked.

"Let's do… 'Boys of Summer'"

"Alright, will you sing it, that's part of it, knowing how to sing it." Helen said, taking out a piece of parchment.

"What's it called again?" Meredith asked.

"'Boys of Summer.'" Lily answered.

"Who's it by?" 

"DJ Sammy."

"Alright, tell us the lyrics, then sing it, please." Helen said.

"Alright." 

Karina proceeded to tell her the words. (AN: not telling, if you want to know, email me, or look it up!)

"O…k, now, sing it please."

Lily and Karina looked at each other, then sang at the top of their lungs.

"Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach. I feel it in the air, the summer's out of reach…"

As soon as they finished, they looked at each other and busted out laughing.

"Maybe you should head to class." Helen said, grinning.

Grabbing their bags, and still laughing like there was no tomorrow, they walked to the History of Magic classroom, stopping every few feet to catch their breath, then laugh even harder. It too them a total of twenty minutes to get there, and they were gasping for breath and clutching their sides when everyone started coming in. Even when Professor Binns floated in, their were laughing, and by now, wiping tears from their face. He continued on as usual, not noticing that everyone was watching Karina and Lily.

"That…*more laughter* was the…*laugh* stupidest thing…*laugh* we've EVER done!" Lily started laughing even harder, if it was possible.

"I don't…*laugh* know about…*laugh* that. *Laugh* We've done…*laugh* some pretty…*loud laugh* damn stupid things before!" Karina was laughing harder than Lily now. Lily started to fall out of her seat, grabbed Karina, but instead of helping her up, they both fell. They erupted in even more laughter.

Class ended an hour and a half later with Karina and Lily still giggling.

"How can we laugh so much and Binns not notice?" Karina asked, looking back at him.

Lily laughed, "Ouch, I don't know, but not only does my side and face hurt from laughing so much, but my ass does too."

"Mine too! If it wasn't for you though, my ass would be fine!"

"Hey, if you hadn't been laughing so hard, you would have been able to help me. " she gave Karina a small push.

"That wasn't very nice," the Fat Lady said, frowning.

Lily and Karina started a laughing spell again.

"What's so funny?" she asked indignantly.

"Don't mind them, I think someone slipped them something." Sirius' voice came from down the hall.

"Password?" she asked.

"Wayfarers." James said.

Lily and Karina laughed even more at that, but managed to climb into the portrait hole.

"That's…*laugh* part…*laugh* of the SONG!" Karina said, then fell onto a couch laughing.

"I know!" Lily fell next to her and they laughed and laughed for about half an hour. People were coming back from dinner now, and were staring at them. 

"Get a grip!" Gina snapped to them.

"Fuck off!" Karina snapped.

"Kari!" Lily gasped. They weren't laughing anymore.

"Now that my mood is spoiled, we should start on our homework, but let's get some dinner first." Karina got up and Lily followed.

~Mauraders~

"How do they do it?" James asked, gaping at them all during History of Magic.

"I do not know." Sirius replied, after watching them fall on the floor.

"They haven't laughed this much since we met them."

"Well, James, maybe it's cause they don't find anything that happens around here too funny." Remus said, looking up from the girls.

"We do plenty of funny things." Sirius replied haughtily.

"They seemed to be above that, but I don't know anymore." Remus said skeptically.

After class, they followed the girls up to the common room, but finally gave the password.

"What is up with them?" Peter asked in awe, as Lily and Karina fell on the couch.

"I dunno, let's go down to dinner and see if this scene changes before we come up." James said, not turning his head from them.

They went down to diner, and passed Jason and Michael along the way, after giving them glares, they sat at the table and started picking through dinner.

James had just picked up a treacle tart, when Lily and Karina came storming into the Hall with looks to kill.

"Looks like someone ruined their mood." Sirius muttered.

"Doesn't look like it's going to get better, Snivellus has a look on his face." James said, pointing to Snape.

"_Perfecitus Totalus_!" Lily and Karina yelled, and Snape was snapped together so hard even over all the talking, the Gryffindors, all the way across the hall could hear.

"MS. EVANS AND MS. KARR!" McGonagall and Hasta yelled at the same time.

Over all the commotion, the professors yelling, Snape being sent up to the hospital wing, and the Slytherins cat calling, it was understood that they both lost fifty points from Gryffindor and had detention for a week.

A few hours later, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were laying in their dorm, when Sirius commented with a yawn, "You can't say today wasn't interesting!" Three pillows were thrown at him.


	8. You are my Sunshine

Disclaimer: I don't own the Harry Potter world. Or universe. The wonderful J.K. Rowling does. All hail J.K. Rowling!

****

I love reviewers!

Karina and Lily

"You should go get ready soon."

"I know." Karina was looking out the window, watching the rain pour onto the Hogwarts' grounds.

Lily put her book down and sat next to her friend on the window seat in their dorm.

"Don't forget to wear your cloak."

"Yes mother."

"Be quiet."

"Of course mum."

Lily sighed.

"I'm going to go take a shower."

"Alright. I took mine last night, so don't worry about hot water." Lily smirked.

"Okay."

'I love nights like those. Me and Karina just sat around enjoying each other's company. She seemed rather sad though.' Lily frowned. She stood up and walked to her wardrobe, pulling it open. She took out a long black skirt and a black 'white' beater. She pulled on her black boots and sat around waiting for Karina.

"Nice outfit. Too bad it's mine!" Karina laughed.

"You know you want to let me wear it Kari." Lily smiled.

"Why would I say no?" Kari walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a pair of black bondage pants, a low cut tight fit black tank top with a mesh shirt underneath, and high top strapped boots.

"Bondage." Lily smiled.

"Oh yeah!" Karina laughed and used her wand to dry and straighten her hair. She put on some black eyeliner, silver eyeshadow, dark red lipstick, and some pale powder.

"That eyeliner makes you look Egyptian."

"I like it."

"So do I. Lets go. I'm a little hungry."

"A little? You're starving. I know it. I heard your stomach rumbling for some cereal."

"So? You want a doughnut. It calls you…listen, _Kari, eat me. I'm a doughnut, eeeeaaaatttt meeeee!_" Lily said this with a high squeaky voice.

"I think you girls need more sleep."

"Remus? You're up early." Karina said startled.

"You two aren't the only insomniacs in Gryffindor." he smiled.

"How did you know we were insomniacs?" Lily asked.

"I heard you two talking the other night, and I saw you in the common room last year." he shrugged.

"Well, if you're one, you should come sit with us. It might be more fun with three." Karina suggested.

"Sure why not."

"Want to come to breakfast with us?"

"Alright."

They walked down to the Great Hall, and they were the only ones in there. There weren't even any teachers.

"Wow. Believe this is a first. Students coming into the Great Hall for breakfast even before teachers." Karina laughed and sat down.

"At least the food is warm." Lily said, pouring some cereal into her bowl.

"You're eating cereal, how would you know?"

"Shut up Kari…"

"You wanna hear a funny joke?" Karina asked, picking up a doughnut.

"Do I?" Remus asked Lily.

Lily looked at Karina. Karina smiled mischievously.

"I think so." Lily grinned.

"Okay Karina, what is it."

"Well, this is a muggle joke so sorry if it doesn't make sense, but…"

Mauraders minus Remus

A loud snore jarred Sirius and James from their dreams.

"Peter!" two male voices groaned.

"Might as well get up and see Wolf boy." Sirius said, scratching his head.

"Does he ever sleep?" James muttered looking at Remus' clean unslept in bed.

"No, I don't think werewolves sleep much." Sirius' reply came from the bathroom. Water started running the next minute.

James got up and threw a pillow at Peter to wake him up.

"Djklyuladjfaaugboag!" and a lot of other unintelligible babble came from Peter's mouth. Sirius came out of the bathroom then with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Get dressed Sirius." James said, heading into the bathroom.

"Oh, you know you want to look at my perfect body!" he laughed and flexed his arms.

"Shut up Sirius!" James called then turned on the water.

"Peter WAKE UP!"

"WHAT!" Peter sat bolt right up.

"Time to get up, that's what." Sirius said while picking up some jeans off the floor and pulling them on.

"Oh." Peter stood up.

"James is in the bathroom, so you're gonna have to wait till he gets out. Wolf boy went down to breakfast without us." Sirius filled him in, pulling on a black t-shirt.

Just then, James came out of the bathroom exactly the way Sirius had, with a towel around his waist.

"Get dressed James." Sirius said, imitating his voice.

"Shut up." James said, pulling on some khakis and a dark green t-shirt.

"Hurry up Pete!"

Peter was in the shower now, but he had taken his clothes with him. He didn't feel the need to show James and Sirius what horrible condition he was in.

About ten minutes later, they were walking down to the Great hall for breakfast. They walked in to see Remus laughing with Karina and Lily. They walked up and sat down across from them.

"What's so funny?" James asked.

Remus just laughed harder and pointed to Karina.

"What did she do?" Sirius asked, picking up a piece of toast.

"Laugh Told…laugh funniest joke…" Remus laughed even harder.

"Oh, tell us." James said, pulling his bowl of cereal closer.

"Alright. It's a muggle joke so, I have to explain a few things first. One, a doctor is a muggle healer. Two, castration is where doctors remove a guy's balls, and three, circumcision is where, when you are born, they take off a layer of skin surrounding the penis. We clear?"

Sirius sprayed out his pumpkin juice and James was staring, open mouthed at Karina.

"Clear." they both said.

"Okay, well, there was this man, and he went to the doctor's and said, 'I want to be castrated.' the doctor was like, 'Are you sure?' and tried to talk him out of it, but the man was persistent, and in the end, won. So the operation came and went about a week later, and the guy walked out into a rec room of the hospital all funny like, and saw a guy walking just like he was. The other man walked up and asked, 'Circumcision too?' and the man goes, 'That's the word!'"

They all started laughing really hard except for Peter, who wasn't paying attention till they all started laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

They all waved their hands dismissing the question till they stopped laughing and were breathing regularly.

"Peter, you missed the whole joke!" Sirius exclaimed.

"It was priceless!" James said, and started howling with laughter again.

"What did you do Kari?" Sarah asked from behind them.

Karina stopped laughing suddenly. "Hey, I resent that!"

This just resulted in more laughter.

"Kari!"

"Jason!" Karina jumped up and ran to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Good morning sunshine."

"Bleck. Sunshine."

"Oh I forgot my queen of darkness," he said, giving a little mock bow.

"All is forgiven my love slave," she giggled.

"What do you say to spending the day with me?"

"I say yay! Till three at least, I have something important to do."

"Alright love." Jason smiled and they went back to the table to sit down.

Sirius looked up and frowned. "Isn't this Gryffindor's table?"

"I invited him to sit with us Black."

Lily screamed at that moment.

"MICHAEL!"

"Lily, glad to see you're so chipper this morning."

"You scared the crap out of me!" she gave him a little punch in the chest.

"All in a day's work." he smiled and kissed her forehead. "Have you told them?" he directed this question to Jason.

"I have asked Karina…"

"Kari, call me Kari."

"I have asked Kari, and she said yes, the rest is all you."

"Alright then, Lily, would you like to spend the day with me?" Michael asked sitting next to her.

"I would be delighted."

"What are you planning?" Karina asked suspiciously.

"You'll see." Jason said smiling.

"I feel suddenly afraid." Lily said smiling.

"Well, we'll show you there's nothing to fear. Come with us." Michael held out his hand for Lily while Jason helped Karina up.

"See you guys later!" Lily called back.

"Bye!" Kari waved and walked on.

"See ya later guys!" Sarah smiled, walking off.

"Where are you going?" James demanded.

"I have something to do for them. And so does Liz by the way. OY LIZ!"

"Coming!"

They walked out of the hall giggling and whispering.

"I don't like either of them." Sirius said moodily, stabbing a pancake with a fork.

"Maybe you should have asked Karina out during the summer." Remus said, grabbing a piece of toast and spreading jelly on it.

"I don't like them either." James said, looking over his shoulder.

"Same advice to you, you should have asked Lily out over the summer."

Mumbling could be heard coming from Sirius and James' mouths.

"What are we going to do today?" Peter asked suddenly, pushing his plate away.

"I dunno… hey! Want to see where that passage we saw Pringle going into leads to?" James asked suddenly.

"The one behind the witch with the humpback?" Remus asked, interested.

"Yeah, what was the word to get it open again?"

"'Dissendium' or something like that right?" Sirius asked.

"I think so. Something like that. Anyways, we should take the cloak, just in case. I'm pretty sure we'll all fit." James said lowering his voice.

"When are we going to go?" Peter squeaked in anticipation.

"Later on in the afternoon. After lunch. We should get some homework done considering I won't be here tomorrow." Remus put in.

"Homework!" Sirius said, looking as though Christmas was cancelled.

"Yes, Peter, if you need help, I'll help you." Remus turned to Peter.

"Sirius, we'll do something else till then." James said standing up.

"Alright. Anything's better than homework." Sirius stood up and stretched.

"We'll be in the library if you need us."

"The library! James'll go in for me!" Sirius yelped.

"What do you have against the library?"

"Its too quiet. And stuffy."

"Well, people do go there to learn and study." Remus said, exasperated.

"And all the studying! It's ridiculous!"

"Come on mate, we won't have to go, I have a plan for us."

"Does it have to do with Snivellus?"

James and Sirius talked about their plans walking out of the Great Hall, while Remus watched after them shaking his head.

Lily and Karina

"Can I look now?" Lily asked.

"Not yet." Michael answered.

"How about now?" Karina asked, trying to peek.

"Oh no you don't!" Jason put his hands over her face.

"We're almost there!" Sarah called excitingly.

"WHERE!" Karina and Lily yelled at the same time.

"Please, don't do the whole, talk at the same time, it's scary." Jason shuddered and Karina felt it in his hands.

"How?" they asked in unison.

"We're the-re!" Liz called in a singsong voice.

Jason uncovered Karina's eyes and she gasped. She heard Lily gasp too.

They were in a room somewhere in Hogwarts, but it looked like they were in one of the fanciest restraunts in London.

"Surprise." Michael whispered in Lily's ear. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in close.

"Do you like it?" Jason asked Karina looking at her gaze wondrously around the room.

"I love it!" she suddenly reached her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.

"Let's set the mood." Sarah whispered to Liz. Liz nodded and walked over to a corner, and suddenly, the room was filled with the sound of muggle love songs, nice and slow.

The couples slowly revolved around for hours, enjoying each other's company, when Liz said, "Lunch, we brought it up just for you." A table was set up and some food was set upon it.

"Umm, Liz, I can't have this." Karina pointed to the pumpkin juice.

"Why?" Liz asked curiously.

"I'm allergic to pumpkins."

"Oh, well, here, have some sweet tea." she flicked her wand, and the pumpkin juice was replaced with tea.

"Thanks."

Lunch was highly enjoyed until shrieks were heard, obviously coming from floors below.

"I have an odd feeling…" Lily said, looking at the floor.

"Yeah, I think we should go see what's happening. It's two anyways I should be getting ready to leave." Karina said.

Karina kissed Jason and Lily kissed Michael and they left, heading down towards the commotion.

As they approached the Great Hall, the shrieks were defined roughly as bad singing. And more specifically Slytherins singing, "You are my sunshine" at the top of their lungs.

"…WHEN YOU'RE NOT HAPPY MY SKIES ARE GREY…"

Then, Karina turned around and pulled on a tapestry.

"Oh ho. Look who it is. Black and Potter."

"Fancy seeing you here Karr!" Sirius said sniggering as Snape's voice cracked from getting so high.

"Make them stop before they bust out eardrums." Lily said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Alright Evans. If you go out with me!" Everything seemed to go quiet. 'SHIT! What did I do!' James yelled in his head.

"What did you say Potter?" Lily asked quietly.

"I…uh…" James stuttered.

"YOU PRAT! I'M NOT GOING OUT WITH YOU! WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM!" Lily shrieked, louder than the Slytherins, then she stomped up towards the common room.

"Think headed idiots!" Karina yelled, then ran after Lily.

"Of all the stupid things that was the STUPIDEST!"

"I know, but we have to hurry, I have to grab my cloak then leave!"

"Oh yeah."

"Password?"

"Wayfarers."

The portrait hole swung open.

Karina ran up, got her cloak and came down.

"Let's go! I have to be in Hogsmeade in ten minutes!' she ran out the portrait hole and called behind, "RACE YA LILY!"

"No fair!"


	9. Catfights in the Girl's Dorm

Disclaimer: If you think I own Harry Potter, and that I'm J.K. Rowling, you're pretty stupid…

****

Reviews make me smile!

~Lily and Karina~

"Se you Kari! Good luck." Lily waved to her friend, heading to Hogsmeade with Professor Dumbledore.

Karina walked swiftly, trying to keep up with Dumbledore. After a while, he slowed down.

"Ms. Karr, will you be fine with talking to these people?" Dumbledore looked her, his blue eyes filled with concern.

"I believe so sir. Why do you ask?" Karina was taken aback.

"Rarely have I ever met a student, or let alone a person who wasn't upset at past events in their lives."

"I'm too used to it to be upset." Karina answered, her voice wavering a little.

"Sometimes its not in the best interest to be immune."

Karina looked directly ahead, not wanting Dumbledore to see the tears welling up.

Karina hesitated for a minute. "He won't be there will he?" she whispered.

"No. I don't believe they are allowed."

They walking on in silence for a little longer.

"Thank you Professor." Karina gave him a tiny smile.

"It's my pleasure."

(AN: I am horrible with thinking up things for Dumbledore to say!)

They headed down High Street and Karina tried to look at everything at once, but all too soon they reached the Three Broomsticks.

"Good luck, and remember, if you need an ice breaker, I'm sure your singing will do just that." Dumbledore winked, gave her a reassuring smile, and then walked back towards Hogwarts.

Karina laughed a little, remembering the incident, took in a deep breath and walked in.

There, in the back, was a table surrounded by official looking wizards and a witch, accompanying a nervous looking Muggle official. 

"Hello there Ms. Karr. Please sit, would you like anything to drink?" one of the wizards said, smiling and standing up to welcome her.

Karina managed a small smile and sat down. "Can we just get this over with. I don't like to think about it."

"Whatever you wish." the witch smiled, trying to comfort the poor young witch.

"Since we are getting straight to business, I guess I'll start asking the questions. Tell me exactly what happened that day."

Karina took in another deep breath and told the whole story.

It continued that way for another hour, the muggle asking her questions, and Karina answering. Karina could feel the tears coming on when she talked about all the things she put up with from her father through the years.

"Well I believe that's all. Thank you for your time." the muggle got up. "I believe your father will be locked away for a long time. Don't worry about it any longer."

"I'll escort you back to Hogwarts." one of the wizards said, standing up.

Karina and the wizard left walking up towards the school. The sun was just setting and everything was in a golden glow.

They were just coming on to Hogwarts grounds, when Lily could be seen running to grab her friend in a hug.

"YOU'RE BACK!"

Karina just nodded solemnly.

"I'll leave you here." the wizard said walking away.

"Kari, what's wrong? Did they make you remember?" Lily asked softly.

Karina just nodded fighting back the tears. 

"Come on. You can get it out in the dorm." Lily put an arm around her friend and led her up to Hogwarts and towards the common room.

"Password?"

"Wayfarers."

Lily rushed Karina across the common room, seeing the Mauraders, but they spotted her to quickly.

"Evans! How are you?"

"Out of my way Potter!" Lily snarled, grabbing her wand.

"What's wrong with Karr?"

"Nothing that concerns you Black." Lily pushed her way through and made it to the staircase.

Karina started sobbing audibly by now. Lily led her to her bed and they both sat on it.

"He…was so horrible…to us! How…could he do that!" Karina slowly stopped crying, then got up and went through her trunk. After pushing all the contents aside, the came out with a picture frame. After looking at the picture, all emotion left Karina's face, and she flung it across the room, and it shattered.

"_Reparo!"_

She ran over picked it up, and threw it again.

Lily just watched, letting her friend cope.

"How could he! He had us to think about! And he was too busy screwing other girls and drinking to care!" She repaired the picture and threw it against the wall. Then, she just stood there, looking at it, breathing in deeply, looking as though she could breathe fire.

"Well, he won't be able to do it anymore! You're here, and your mom's safe now." Lily firmly.

Karina didn't say anything.

"What happened to our dorm!" a high-pitched squeal came from the door. It was Denise. Gina was standing behind her with a look to kill. "Our stuff is all over everywhere, and everything is broken!"

"How did you two ever get into Gryffindor! You just take up space here!" Gina yelled, they heard the common room get quiet. "Lily, you're not as bad, but if you keep hanging around with _her _you'll be no better. She wakes us up in the middle of the night screaming about her nightmares. She's not brave, she treats us all like we're inferior, she has no traits that Gryffindor is valued for!"

Lily's red head temper was starting to boil over, when Karina put her hand on Lily's arm to stop her from cursing them both to oblivion.

"Fine." Karina whispered, "FINE! MAYBE I DON'T BELONG HERE! I DON'T BELONG ANYWHERE! I'M ALONE AND I ALWAYS WILL BE! YOU THINK I SCREAM FOR NO REASON! YOU DON'T KNOW FEAR UNTIL SOMEONE ADVANCES ON YOU WITH HATE IN THEIR EYES! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO BE BRAVE! YOU'VE NEVER BEEN PUT IN A SITUATION OT HAVE TO BE BRAVE, AND FEEL LUCKY! IT'S NOT GLAMOROUS! I'M NOT BRAVE! I'M SCARED OUT OF MY FUCKING MIND! I HAVE NO DAMN CLUE WHY I WAS PUT HERE, AND IF I DID, I'D TELL YOU, BUT BEFORE YOU PETTY PEOPLE JUDGE ME, GET TO KNOW ME FIRST!" Karina was red in the face, and tears were streaming down her face. "I don't belong…I never have… I never will. I'll always be alone." she started muttering, and wobbling, pushed past Gina and Denise, looking stunned and made her way down. People were staring at her as she walked towards the portrait hole and went out. Then Lily got up.

"Great, like she needed to feel worse than she does already! Damn bitches! Karina, wait!" Lily ran down trying to catch up with her, but for someone so upset, she was really fast. Lily looked around and couldn't find her outside the portrait hole or in any of the nearby corridors.

"KARINA! KARI! Where are you?" Lily called, and pounded against a nearby wall. Her knuckles started bleeding. "SHIT! Could this night get worse!"

"Lily?" a voice called uncertainly.

"Michael? What are you doing here?" Lily looked up, stunned to see her boyfriend walking towards her cautiously.

"I was going to my common room, I just finished dinner, when I heard someone screaming, so I followed the noise and found you...and your bleeding!" he exclaimed.

Lily waved this away, and said hurriedly, "We have to find Kari!"

"Not until I get you to the hospital wing." Michael said stubbornly.

"No. Not until I find Kari."

"I'll carry you then." Michael walked over and picked her up.

"Michael! I have to find her! Who knows what she'll do!" Lily shrieked.

Michael didn't pause, and carried her all the way against her protests.

~Karina~

(AN: I'm going to start having the characters talk like themselves…like using me and I. Trying to see if it is easier that way…)

I stumbled out of the common room with everyone staring at me. I knew they were. But who gives a shit. They can all rot. "I have to get out of here." I mumbled wandering around the corridors. My face was red, and I knew I was crying, cause my vision was all blurry. When I did pass people, they gave me strange looks. I finally made my way down to the Great Hall, but I couldn't bring myself to go out the doors and leave Hogwarts behind. I loved it here. So, I turned around, and staggering, I made my way up. Soon, I came up to a corridor I'd never seen before, went into an empty room, and I slid down the wall and started hypervenelating. I was breathing deeply, but couldn't get enough air, and suddenly, I heard someone outside the door. I tried to hide under a desk, I didn't want ANYONE to see me, but I collapsed as soon as I tried to move. I just stared crying again. Damn crying! I hate it.

"Karr, I mean Karina?" I heard someone ask, and that someone was Sirius Black. Oh great, just the arrogant prat I wanted to see. Except not really. That was sarcasm.

"Go…away…Black!" I said in between sobs. I sound like an idiot.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

"GO AWAY!" I screamed. Man my voice is going to kill me tomorrow.

He looked awkward for a moment, before coming over and pulling me up. I just collapsed again. This time, he picked me up. I reiterate, Sirius Black, one of the most annoying people I know, picked me up and started carrying me out the door.

"Put me down."

"No. You have to get to the hospital wing. You bleeding, you can't stand, and you just don't look good."

"Just let me go! Why can't I get away! I don't need anyone! I'm alone!" I started crying even harder, and weakly hitting him. He didn't do anything. Just kept carrying me. I stopped protesting, realizing in my weak state, (God I hate being weak) I wouldn't win any arguments.

Soon after, I was being carried into the hospital wing, when who else do I see, but Lily. Her hands were bandaged up and she was screaming that she had to find me. Then, she saw Black walk in with me, and I saw that Michael, Jason, Liz, and Sarah were also there. Everyone stopped talking as he set me down on a bed. I curled up and just kept crying.

"Kari." I heard Lily whisper softly. I just kept crying. She hugged me, and soon, Liz and Sarah were there too, holding my hands and stroking my hair and back. 

"You! Boys! OUT!" Madame Pomfrey shooed Black, Jason, and Michael out, and then came over to me. "What happened dear?" she asked so softly. 

"I…" I started, and then stopped. I just couldn't go on. I just rocked back and forth, my crying finally calming down. I hugged my knees tight and just sat there rocking.

"Madame, she's gone through a lot today." Lily said and explained the whole story. I heard her add quietly, "She just started her period too." 

Liz and Sarah just stared open mouthed at Lily.

~Lily~

As Michael brought me into the hospital wing, and set me down, I thought of running off, but then he grabbed me round the waste.

"Bloody HELL let me go!" I screeched, but to no avail. Soon, Madame Pomfrey came in and looked at me, then started clicking her tongue disapprovingly. "Sit." she ordered, and reluctantly, I did.

"Michael, ouch, go find Jason, Liz and Sarah and find Kari!" I said urgently. My knuckles felt like they were on fire. Madame Pomfrey just put some bandages on them and told me to wait. I sat there watching and waiting for Michael to return, hoping he had found Kari. No such luck.

"Damn, she was always so good at hiding." I said clenching my good hand.

"We'll find her Lily." Sarah said, trying to reassure me. No wonder she was a Hufflepuff.

"We can split up and look for her." Liz suggested. Now there is a Ravenclaw for you.

"We have to find her." Jason looked scared. This was his girlfriend.

Suddenly, looking over his shoulder, I saw Sirius Black bring in a screwed up Karina. Silently, he set her down and stood back.

I walked over to her curled up form and tried to sooth her.

"Kari." I said quietly and just hugged her. I didn't know what to say. Liz and Sarah made their way to us and just stroked her quietly. Madame Pomfrey came over then, and tried to get something out of Kari. She tried to tell her, I know she did, but something happened, and I took over. I told the whole story. Even the part about her period, which I knew for fact didn't help her at all. She asked no questions, but brought over a potion that she said was for a dreamless sleep. She poured it down Kari's throat, and about five minutes later, she was sleeping, but she hadn't relaxed. She was tossing and turning, and was even starting to sweat.

"Will she be okay?" I asked Madame Pomfrey, casting a worried look at Kari's glistening forehead.

"I really don't know. The potion doesn't seem to stop her dreams."

"Should we get Professor Dumbledore?"

"I think so. Would one of you please go get him?"

"I'm already here Poppy." Dumbledore's gentle voice said from behind them. He walked over to Kari's bed and looked at her. He sighed, and whispered a spell, and a look of peace came over her face. I hadn't seen her look like that since we were…five or six, maybe earlier.

"She'll sleep for a few days peacefully. There is nothing else we can do for her now." he looked sad, as he looked at Kari's limp body. He slowly walked out of the wing, pausing for a second. "You girls are excused from curfew tonight. I believe you would like to stay with her, and you may."

"Thank you Professor." we muttered. He walked out.

I sighed and went back over to Kari's bed.

"Did Denise and Gina really do that?" Sarah asked, her eyes cold.

"Yeah, they really did."

"Some Gryffindors they are." Liz muttered.

~Sirius~

"That was a good one James! Did you see his face!" I was laughing so hard, tears of mirth rolling down my face. You would be laughing too if you saw Snape and his slimy Slytherin friends, Avery and Rosier, running around with their hair purple screaming "Gryffindors rule!" It was priceless.

"Your so lucky we didn't get caught! We could get about two months worth of detention for that." Remus, the common sense of the group said, but his lips were twitching into a smile.

"Lets prank them again soon!" Peter squeaked up. I rolled my eyes. He was just so dumb sometimes.

"I have an idea." James announced, his face mock serious.

"What is it Jamesie boy?" I asked, laughing at the dumb pet name his cousin gave him a few years before.

He winced, and said, "I say we find the quickest way to Gryffindor tower, so if we ever need quick getaways, we know where to go."

"We already know the quickest way is to go down the seventh floor corridor and…" I was cut off.

"Well, how do we know that? Let's find out. I think James' idea is a good one." Remus said.

"Alright. I'll go my way, and you all can decide." I crossed my arms, and leaned against the wall. A group of Ravenclaw fourth year girls were going by. I winked and set them into a giggling fit. 

It took about another five minutes for everyone to decide which way they were going, when, finally, Remus said go.

I walked down the corridor towards the hidden staircase, and went up. I thought I was making good rime, till I reached the seventh floor corridor, and heard someone in one of the unused classrooms. Unsure, I followed the noise, and looked in the room it was coming from. I think I almost fainted. Karina Karr. Ms. Cool, calm and collected was collapsed on the floor crying and breathing hard.

"Karr, I mean Karina?" I asked uncertainly.

"Go…away…Black!" she said in between sobs. I had never, in all my life heard a girl cry like that before. It was terrible. 

"What happened?" I asked a little softer than before. I couldn't take it.

"GO AWAY!" she screamed. I didn't. I couldn't. I had to help her. I wanted to cradle her in my arms and make her stop, but I knew for a fact, that if I did that, well…lets just say it wouldn't be pretty. But, something possessed me, and I went over and picked her up, with one thought. Get her to hospital wing.

"Put me down." she said quietly, I think I surprised her.

"No. You have to get to the hospital wing. You bleeding, you can't stand, and you just don't look good." I said dumbly, trying to get her to calm down.

"Just let me go! Why can't I get away! I don't need anyone! I'm alone!" she cried, and started to hit me weakly against the chest. I ignored her, and kept walking. The halls were deserted, it was getting late. Finally, we reached the hospital wing, and I saw all of her friends gathered around. I took a quick glance at them, but just set her down on a bed and backed away. This was no place for me. I stood next to Jason, her boyfriend, and he gave me this glare. So did his buddy Michael.

"What did you do to my girlfriend?" Jason growled.

"Nothing, I found her in an empty classroom." I answered truthfully. That's gotta be a first.

"Like hell you didn't! You probably tried to take advantage of her!" his voice was raising. Now I was starting to get angry. I would never do that to Karina.

"Now look, I didn't do anything but bring her here!" I said, my voice starting to shake.

"You! Boys! OUT!" Madame Pomfrey screeched at us. It was a good thing too, or else I would have been pounding that ass of a guy Karina calls her boyfriend up. I stalked off before anything else happened, and went into the common room to find it in an uproar. I spotted James, Remus, and Peter sitting at a table with grim expressions on their faces. I walked over there and sat down.

"Guys, what happened?"

"There was a major catfight in the girls dorms. It as between Denise and Gina, and Lily and Karina." Remus said solemnly.

"Where have you been Sir?" (AN: pronounced sear. Not sur.) James asked.

I winced at the nickname. When we were little, he always called me that cause he couldn't pronounce my name.

"Well, this explains why Karr was upset. I found her crying in a classroom on the seventh floor. I took her to the hospital wing, and there I was mauled by her boyfriend." I said, not giving details. "What was the fight about?"

"Well, from what I've heard, Karina and Lily crashed the dorm up, and Gina went into yelling at Karina about not belonging in Gryffindor, and then Karina yelled back at her, no one knows exactly what she said, and Karina ran out, Lily following." Remus frowned. He seemed most upset out of all the other people in the common room. 

"She didn't deserve that to be said to her." Remus was getting louder. I though he was going to hex every person in the vicinity.

"Whoa Remus. Calm down. Why so upset?" James asked, confused.

"Never mind." he muttered. "But I believe I know who our next prank will be directed at."

"Alright! Great idea Remus! But first, lets go to the hospital wing. I'm sure we can make it under the cloak." I said, lowering my voice.

"No. Let her be with her friends. We'll see her tomorrow." Remus, the voice of reason, said.

"Oh fine." I sulked.

AN: I didn't put anything about the statue and the passage! I'm sorry. I just don't think it fits anywhere! Reviews…please, they make me happy!


	10. Something Rather Random

Disclaimer: No, nothing has changed, I STILL don't own Harry Potter, and I'm STILL not J.K. Rowling…poobah.

AN: I liked the whole, POV so I'm going to stick with that for a while, and if I don't like it, I'll change it. This is like a trial run or something…

~Lily~

We stayed in the hospital wing all night watching Kari. Sarah nodded off about two and Liz fell asleep later, don't know exactly when, but I heard her soft snores. I was the only one left up. I knew Kari would be mad if she found out that I stayed up all night for her. She hated it when people sacrificed for themselves for her. She is a very proud person. But, back to that night. I was wondering why, of all people, Sirius Black brought her in. Him and his pig headed friends, the 'Mauraders', self named, were, well pig headed. Except Remus. Me and Kari started to really get to know him during the past week. He was a real deep guy. One of the only deep guys I knew, or actually know that I think about it…probably the only one. Oops, sorry, Michael. I'm still not used to having him as a 'boyfriend' so to speak. Sure, we kiss, but I personally think that we're to young to be considered anything beyond 'boyfriend and girlfriend'. Dating, well going to Hogsmeade wasn't the same. When I told Kari about how I felt, she nodded quite enthusiastically and agreed. We usually agree on things like that. It's kinda weird actually. You know how little kids usually don't agree on anything and argue about sharing? Well, me and Kari have known each other since…well…forever, and we never have once gotten seriously mad at each other. There have been times, like on the train last year; I still shudder when I think about the look in her eyes. She looked so lost, alone, sad, angry, all of that in one. Her eyes usually don't show emotion. She's good at that. Hiding emotions, unlike me. Her icy blue eyes usually have some sorrow in them, but that's not showing her emotions, she's always like that. Her eyes showed her emotion tonight. They changed from icy, to dark and soulful, and so sad. Then, there are my eyes. Livid green, that show the slightest bit of emotional change within me. Even if its from happy, to happier. Kari loves my eyes, I just roll them and she goes, "Not anymore." She always makes me laugh. She's the 'strong one.' That's how I describe her. She is strong for her mom, and her sister, Sam, and for me. She's been through hard times, but she's always so, steadfast. She's started going, well, depressed lately. I know its cause of her dad. He's awful. That dumb episode over the summer is just an example of what he does. He makes me sick, but now he's going to be locked up for a while. At least until we're out of Hogwarts.

Now I'm rambling on. It's almost seven in the morning. I've gotten no sleep, and my bloody hand hurts. Literally and…not…literally…

"Lil?" Sarah's sleepy voice asked, and broke into a tremendous yawn.

"Yes?" I asked, my voice croaking.

"Were you up all night?"

"Yeah, thinking. As soon as Kari's up, I'll go to sleep." I stood up, stretched, then sat back down.

"I want to get something to eat, but I don't want to leave." Sarah said glancing at Kari.

"Yeah, me too."

"Ahh! Liz, don't do that!" I jumped at the sound of her voice. I had thought she was asleep.

Liz grinned sleepily. "That was priceless."

"Argh, I could hit you, but my hand is kind of occupied right now."

"Aww, poor Lily."

"Shut up." I muttered.

"Ladies! Looking quite fabulous I might add. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

"Potter. Shut. Up." I paused between each word. Obviously he's pulling our legs cause we look like crap. Our hair is messed up and our robes are disheveled. Not to mention there are bags beginning to form under my eyes. I looked in the mirror, and it confirmed what I thought about my appearance.

"Has she woken up yet?" Sirius asked softly. He was looking at Kari with a worried expression. 

Hold it. Rewind. Sirius Black has a serious look on his face. I almost dropped my jaw in surprise, but luckily, I caught myself as Michael and Jason walked in. 

"Hey Michael!" I got up and walked to him, kissing his cheek. Was that jealousy in Potter's face? "Jason, she hasn't woken up yet." I added softly.

He didn't say anything, but sat next to her on her bed and started to play with her hair softly. It was rather sweet, but I knew that if Kari knew, she would kill him first for doing it, then me for letting him.

Michael sat down, and pulled me onto his lap. Remus was giving me a weird look. I'll ask him about that later.

"What really happened?"

"Huh?" I looked at Jason oddly.

"What happened to Kari?"

"I don't want to talk about it. She'll tell you. It's not my place."

"Whas going on?" a groggy voice came from the bed.

"Kari, you're awake!"

"Yeah, unfortunately. If being dead is like that, kill me now."

"No." Jason came into our conversation firmly.

She looked at him confused, then seemed to remember something. I think I understood. She was used to me being there after something bad happened, not anyone else.

"Good, you're awake. As soon as you take this potion, you're free to go." Madame Pomfrey came up. 

I looked at Kari and saw something in her I had never seen before, it was fear, she was never afraid, why was she now?

~Karina~

I awoke to voices around me. 

"Whas going on?" I managed to ask.

The room came into focus and I saw where I was, and remembered what had happened the night before.

"Kari, you're awake!"

"Yeah, unfortunately. If being dead is like that, kill me now."

"No." 

I looked up at the new voice. Jason, he's a Ravenclaw, but why is he here? Then it clicked. I almost smacked myself. Boyfriend. Except, we were only the little kid 'boyfriend and girlfriend' because we were too young. Lily knew this too. We were going to talk about that, and then all the drama with Hogsmeade and my dad… No. Stop right now. Don't get scared. He's going to be locked up for a long time, the muggle official said so. But still, for an idiot, he's kind of smart, what if gets out…

I took the damn potion that evil nurse Madame Pomfrey gave me, and sent me away. All the guys left under her command, and I was glad. It was just me and Lily, Liz, and Sarah. They only people I wanted to see.

As we walked down to the Great Hall there was one of those understanding silences. Suddenly, I heard some sobbing, from a door to my right.

"Who's that?" I asked through the door.

No one answered.

Lily opened the door, and we walked in.

"Who are you?" said the girl on the floor.

"I'm Sarah Finch." Sarah said soothingly and bent down to the girl. "That's Elizabeth Hwin, Lily Evans, and Karina Karr." she pointed us all out.

"Callie Avery." she muttered looking at us. She looked kind of scared, like we were going to whip out our wands and hex her or something, but then I realized, she was a Slytherin. That's why she thought that. She was sister of that god forsaken Seth Avery. (AN: No matter how hard I scoured the books, I could not find Avery's name, so if you know his real name, please inform me so I can correct it.) Him and his bunch of cronies were known to hurl curses at Lily and me in the halls. She didn't seem so bad though, just a little scared. She looked at me, clearly afraid that I would curse her to oblivion, when I smiled. I even surprised myself with that one.

"Nice to meet you. Don't look so shocked."

"B-but I thought you hated Slytherins?" she spluttered.

"Only the ass wipes in there, but I hate all ass wipes, doesn't matter what house they are in."

"Just so you know, I'm not like them," she said rather bluntly. Oh I liked her. Blunt, the missing piece in our friendship puzzle.

"Come eat with us." Liz smiled.

"Alright Elizabeth." she got up rather shyly.

"Call me Liz, and if I might ask, why were you crying?"

"Stupid letter from my even stupider parents."

"Well, don't think about them, cause you are officially welcome with us." Sarah smiled, and linked arms with her. Callie looked shocked. I glanced at Lily. She caught my eyes and they twinkled knowingly. Something passed between us then, and I knew it was going to be a beautiful friendship.

~Callie~

That stupid bitch. She's psychotic! What was Black thinking? 'The Dark Lord" what rubbish. Her and that Rodolphus Lestrange with their wacky ideas. Letting my damn mother know. Oh, this will really make her mad. I'm now friends with everyone BUT a Slytherin. They're really great too.

"So, want to sit at the Gryffindor table with us?" Karina asked.

I looked at the Slytherin table, and all the evil glares I was getting, especially from Bellatrix, she loathed Lily and Karina. I said loudly, so they could all hear, "I would love to sit with you."

We walked over to the table, and sat down. Lily looked over her shoulder and cracked up. Karina followed with Sarah and Liz coming on quick. I looked over at them and started laughing too. Karina was the first to stop. She didn't seem the happiest person. I looked at her and she almost seemed sad, but she looked at me and gave me a smile. I realized the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"So Callie, tell us about yourself." Sarah said, grabbing some toast and putting jam on it.

"Well, all the obvious things, I'm a Slytherin, third year, stuck with a load of nutters…" I left off.

"Isn't that the God given truth." Lily said smiling and pulling a bowl of cereal closer to her. I reached out and grabbed some bacon.

"So is that your food of choice?" Karina asked smiling, biting into her doughnut.

"What?"

"Well, its like this, I have this obsession with doughnuts, I eat them every morning, and if I don't I drive the world nuts; Lily has to eat her bowl of cereal or she goes of the wall bonkers," Karina smiled at Lily, " Sarah HAS to have her toast, and Liz, well, if Liz doesn't get her English muffin, she is murderous."

I glanced at Liz who had just taken a huge bite of an English muffin, and Lily, who had just finished her second bowl of cereal, smiling, I nodded, "Bacon is my food of choice."

~Sirius~

"Breakfast!" Remus said smiling, after digging into his overcrowded plate.

"Sorry to break it to you mate, but you have it bad for breakfast." James said, laughing at Remus and his plate.

"I agree, no one sits with us any more cause you scare them off." Peter said, watching with an amazed look at all the food Remus stuffed down.

Incoherent mumbling from Remus made James and Peter start laughing.

"Sirius, what's wrong?" James asked, starting on his eggs.

I didn't answer; I couldn't get Karina out of my mind. That awful look of helplessness she had about her last night as I carried her. Not that I didn't like carrying her, but, it was eerie. I had never seen her look any other way than cool, calm, and collected. At least, she was like that normally, then me or James, or both would do something, and she would go berserk, but she had never looked like she needed help. She never asked for it, never even accepted it.

"Did you ever get the full story of what happened last night?" James asked no one in particular.

"I'll tell you what happened! That bitch totally wrecked our dorm! I told her the truth about what everyone in the school thinks of her, then, she had the NERVE to call me petty and judgmental!" Gina called from a couple of seats down. 

Everyone fell quiet, and looked down at the table at Karina. I wanted to know what Karina would do too; Gina had no right to call her a bitch.

"Well, if your NOT petty and judgmental, you sure do have a mighty good impression of one." Karina said coolly.

"Watch it Mudblood! You shouldn't speak to your superiors that way." came a cold voice. I turned around, and saw Avery glaring at her as though she were a piece of garbage. I could almost feel my blood boiling.

"Don't say that word to her." I growled standing up.

"Have a soft spot for a Mudblood do you cuz?" a high smooth voice said, the voice of my much hated cousin Bellatrix. I winced at the use of that word.

"Does it bother you so much Black?" the greaseball Snivellus said from behind Bellatrix."

"Back off Snivellus." James snarled standing up next to me, his hand edged towards his wand.

"Callie, go back to our table." Avery said to someone sitting near Karina and her friends.

"No, I will not _Avery." _the voice said coolly.

"Callie, what are you doing here?" Rodolphus Lestrange, my demented cousin's demented infatuation asked in his cold voice.

"Sitting with my friends, if you could understand the concept of that word."

"If you ever want to be accepted into the Dark Lord's waiting arms, I would advise you to go back to our table, and not associate yourself with such lowly mudbloods." Bellatrix replied, her voice getting higher and louder in anger.

"I don't want to have anything to do with Voldemort." Callie replied calmly going back to her breakfast as though the conversation were over.

"Sister, go back to our table and we will forgive this… whatever you wish to call it."

"No, I believe I've said it enough, and as far as I'm concerned, you're not my brother."

All the Slytherins looked at Callie venomously, then Lestrange hissed, "You will pay for your crimes." And they walked back to their table, the girls watching them all the way.

"Apparently they hit a nerve." Remus said slowly. "I wonder why Callie is sitting with them. Do you really think she's decided she doesn't like the Slytherins?"

"I don't know, but she never did seem as into all the…odd things the other Slytherins were in, like, oh say Snivellus." James said, glancing down the table. 

I looked too and saw that the girls were in deep discussion. Karina didn't seem whole heartedly into it if you ask me, and then she glanced at me. Our eyes met, and for the first time, Karina Karr, in my opinion, the prettiest girl in Hogwarts, genuinely smiled at me, but instead of it warming me, it made me sad to see even her smile wasn't devoid of sadness.

~Lily~

As soon as the Slytherins left, I turned to look at Callie.

"What are you going to do now? They're going to hate you for 'fraternizing with the enemy' so to say." I whispered, glancing at the Slytherin table. They all had identical sour looks on their faces.

"I don't know what to do now. Obviously I'm in deep shit though, and I just met you today." Callie sighed. "The things I get myself into."

"You and me both!" I said, accompanied by my three other friends. We all nervously giggled.

"AHH!"

"What is it Kari?" I asked alarmed.

"JASON! Don't EVER do that again!"

"No promises are being made, but I'll try to restrain myself."

"Hey Lily Flower." Michael said from behind me. I smiled at the little nickname he gave me.

"Hello love." Oh crap, I'm beginning to sound like Karina.

"Hey, that's what I say!" Kari said. Oh no, she noticed. I'm never going to hear the end of this. I looked up to see Kari smiling, but it had even less of the warmth it used to hold. She was slipping farther into the darkness. Or at least, that's what I referred to it as. 

"What are we doing today?" I asked, trying to distract myself from my thoughts.

"I think the girls should have the day together. You know, getting to know the new girl." Kari suggested, picking up fifth doughnut.

"I like that idea." Sarah said smiling.

"Sounds peachy." Liz said, smiling at me. Damnit, she noticed me copying Kari's words too.

"Lovely. Where do we want to go?" Kari asked, swallowing the rest of her doughnut and picking up yet another one.

"We could lock ourselves in our dorm? I know some locking charms no one will be able to break unless they read more charm books than I do."

"That's improbable Lil, so I think it's a good idea." 

"Don't you mean impossible?" Callie asked.

"No, anything is possible."

"Alright, well I like that idea, I can get away from my damn House. And talk of _Voldemort_. Personally I am sick of hearing about him."

"Well that settles it. Boys, you're going to have to find something else to do with your time, because us girls are going to go and enjoy ourselves. But, before we go, I have to say hello to my guy." Liz said, blushing as she finished. I almost started laughing, but decided that I didn't want karma to catch up with me. She walked down and stood next to Remus, kissed his cheek, and flushing, came back down to us.

"I'm ready to go."

"I vote we go to the kitchens to get food before we go to the dorm." Sarah said standing up.

"I second that!" I exclaimed, kissing Michael and standing up.

"Let's go." Kari stood up too and kissed Jason. "See you later."

With all of us standing, we started walking out when Sarah screamed, "I'LL RACE YOU!" and ran off. I took her up on that and started running too, with Kari, Callie, and Liz following.

~Karina~

"Wayfarers." I said to the Fat Lady and walked in to the common room. There weren't a lot of people in it.

"Follow me to the dorm of doom." Lily rolled her eyes.

We walked up the stairs and plopped onto the beds.

"The charm is on the door. No one can get in unless we let them." Lily smiled proudly.

"Sounds good to me, I don't want those other roommates coming in and screeching about some speck of dirt I can't see and don't really care about." I sighed looking towards the door. No regrets. I don't regret anything I have ever done.

__

Maybe we should start. a voice said in the back of my head.

No.

__

Admit it, you regret turning dad in. Mom is going to be pissed. She loves dad to death.

I'll stay with Lily then. I am not going to put up with dad anymore.

__

Your choice.

Thank you for seeing it my way.

"…so when I told them I didn't want to be a Death Eater, they freaked out and sent me a letter telling me how disappointed they are of me. That's why I was so upset. But it doesn't matter anymore." Callie finished.

"What are you going to do now? I mean, you're in danger around the Slytherins now." Sarah asked, taking a bite out of an éclair.

"I don't know. Maybe I can talk to Dumbledore," she said rather dejectedly.

"That's a great idea!" Liz exclaimed.

"What can he do?"

"He could…I dunno, but you won't know until you ask."

"Yeah, but still…"

"But nothing, let's go now!"

Liz stood up and pulled Callie up next to her.

"Are you sure this will work?" Sarah asked unsurely.

"No, but what's life without the risks?"

"Remus made you too chipper." I grumbled standing up.

"Hold it, do we even know where Dumbledore's office is?" Lily, the all knowing and sensible one asked. She looked over at me and winked. Then I understood, she wants to make them sweat first.

"Ummm…"

"Erg…"

'Hmmm…"

"No…"

"Well, maybe we should ask someone."

"Lil, shut it. Maybe we can ask McGonagall?" I asked, she gave me a small smile, I winked back.

"Or Flitwick." Liz suggested.

"I hope it works."

"Me too Sarah." Callie said a little nervously.

~Callie~

Damn Slytherins. Damn dark wizards. What I want to know, is what provokes a wizard to become 'dark'? It's all bullshit to me.

"You look deep in thought. What about?

"Oh, yeah, just thinking about damn dark wizards. What about you Karina?"

"Call me Kari. And I was thinking of how totally screwed my life is."

"What's so screwed up about it?"

"Eh, family issues. Screwy family." Her eyes seemed to cloud up when she said that, but she looked away before I could be positive.

"What can be worse than a family of dark wizards that want you to be one too?" I asked, meaning it to be sarcasm, but my sarcasm is always in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean always. I had never seen such a look, and I'm from Slytherin.

"Don't talk about what you don't know." she snapped, and walked ahead.

Oh great. New friend already mad at me. This is wonderful. Except, that was sarcasm.

"Don't worry about it. She's had an extremely bad few weeks." Lily said soothingly, walking ahead to Kari. I didn't hear what Lily said, but it must have done something because about thirty seconds later, Kari was apologizing. That was a first. No one has ever apologized to me. At least, I mean, they usually aren't sincere about it.

"It's alright." I said rather breathless. Man I sound like a dork.

We walked on in silence for awhile. When I realized, I didn't know where we were headed.

"Where are we going?" I asked uncertainly.

"Well, Liz, being the Ravenclaw that she is, had this idea, that when students wander around the school aimlessly, they get caught by a teacher, and that's exactly who we want to find, a teacher." Sarah explained, still looking a little confused herself.

Liz then did something rather random in my opinion, she walked down a corridor, then deciding against something, walked back to us, then decided to do the thing she originally intended or something, then I heard her gasp. On instinct, I pulled out my wand and rushed forward.

"What is it?"

"A door. It wasn't there before." Liz said pointing at a door.

"Well, open it." Sarah said, staring at the door.

"You do it." Liz said, obviously still kind of shocked.

"Oh I'll do it." Lily said and went up to the door, looking at it carefully and drawing her wand, she opened it and gasped.

Kari pulling out her wand quickly hurried to her side and she sucked in a breath.

"Oh my."

"I know."

"Kari, Lil, what is it?" Liz asked nervously.

"You have to see this." Kari replied, walking in.

Liz cautiously approached the room, and I saw her eyes widen in surprise. She turned to face me and Sarah, and beckoned us forward. Sarah made eye contact with me, raised her eyebrows and we both headed towards the door.

"Wow…" I breathed.

"Its great." Sarah said behind me.

It was a room, a huge room, with five beds, each adorned with our own house colors.

"What is this place?" Liz asked going to the Ravenclaw bed, and flopping herself down on it.

"I dunno, I've never heard of it before…" Lily wandered to on of the Gryffindor beds. "What's this?"

"What?" Kari walked towards her, and looked at the object in her hand. It was a book labeled, _All you need to know about the Room of Requirement._

There was no author.

"The Room of Requirement? I guess that's this place." Sarah went over to a table surrounded by armchairs.

"It looks almost like our common rooms and dorms mixed." Liz said, looking around apprehensively.

"Your common rooms look like this?" I asked confused. Ours was much less cozy.

"Well yeah, doesn't the Slytherin common room look like this?" Sarah looked up confused.

"Well no, it's more dank and not as comforting."

"That doesn't sound pleasant."

"It isn't really."

"Liz, what were you thinking of when you were walking past the wall?" Lily asked suddenly.

"Well, I was thinking that I hoped we could find a place for Callie to sleep and maybe us too so she would be safe from her dorm mates." 

"Well, that explains it then, this room becomes whatever you really need, like, in our case, we wanted a place for Callie to be safe to sleep, with us too, so this nice place showed up. To get here you have to walk past that wall three times thinking about what you want the room to become."

"Dude, do you realize the possibilities with this room! We can sleep here, get to classes early, not have to worry about other damn dorm mates!" 

"Yeah I like that idea Callie!" Sarah smiled.

"Wait, we can just move in here, people would notice, plus, what if other people know about it, our stuff would be stolen, I think we should only come here in emergencies." Kari said thinking things through.

"She's right, I think we should only use this place for sleeping in emergencies, but for other purposes, I think this could be my favorite place in the castle." Liz's mouth curled into a lopsided grin.

"Well, as long as we are in agreement." Lily smiled, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"I knew this would be the start of a beautiful friendship." Kari said slyly.

"I see wonderful sleepovers and girl talk in a certain room in the future…" Sarah said in a mock mysterious tone.

We all laughed and I knew that I didn't need my family if I had friends like them.


	11. He's gonna hurt her, and he won't even c...

Disclaimer: As much as I wish desperately upon the shooting star, I do not own the Mauraders or Lily. Or anything Hogwarts related. That belongs to the wonderful J.K. Rowling. I believe she has a cult, let me look it up…

AN: I like reviews…more please…pwetty pwease…

~Lily~

"Tomorrow is Hogsmeade! Tomorrow is Hogsmeade!" Sarah was singing at the top of her lungs. Frankly, it was giving me a slight headache. 

"That damn transfiguration essay. It gave me a bloody headache." I mumbled, rubbing my temples.

"Why Ms. Evans, I'm ashamed, swearing…tsk tsk."

"Michael!" My headache was gone. He always makes me happy. I run up and give him a hug. 

"Nice to see you too." he smiled. I swear, I melt every time.

"Aww! You guys are so cute!" Liz cooed.

"Fuck off."

"Language Lils, language." Kari said shaming me with her finger.

I stuck my tongue out at her, "You're no better."

She flicked me off.

"Kari!"

"Jason!" She engulfed him in a hug.

"Why were you flicking Lils off?"

"Proving a point," she stated simply.

"You guys are dorks." Sarah giggled.

"Look! Remus is here!" Liz squealed and ran off to tackle her 'boyfriend'. Me and Kari still agree on the too young idea.

"Aww, how adorable!" Callie yelled mockingly.

"Screw you!"

"No thanks!"

Self-named Mauraders gave us funny looks, and we burst into a fit of giggles. Liz dragging Remus, who dragged his fellow Gryffindors, over to us.

"What's with the insults?" James asked Michael. He just shrugged, and that set me off even worse.

"Kari…started…it!" I managed in between breaths.

"You…did…bitch…started…cussing…" she gasped.

"Watch who you call a bitch you little whore!"

"Watch who you call a whore, slut!"

Don't ask. We have this new thing, we insult each other to no end and laugh about it. It started on Sunday while we were talking. It was just so random.

__

Flashback

"Yeah, all the fucking people I knew before Hogwarts were awful."

"Thanks Kari, your no ray of sunshine yourself." I commented.

"You know you love me, ya little bitch!"

"Whore!"

"Slut!"

End Flashback

Like I said, random. So now, it is our inside joke, to insult each other. People think we're crazy, but honestly, I can't for the life of me understand why.

"Wow, and I thought we had problems." 

"Shove it Black!" Kari snapped, and then laughed again, this time landing on the ground underneath our favorite tree. It's this wonderful beech tree. 

"You know you want a part of our game!" Callie giggled, falling next to Kari.

"Uhhhh, no thanks, I think I'll pass."

"Come on Potter! What about you?" Sarah asked, giving puppy eyes.

"Sorry, I agree with Sirius."

I snorted, very unlike me, and sat down next to Kari who started hiccupping.

"I hate *hic* hiccups *hic hic*" Kari sputtered. "Ouch! Stupid *hic* hiccup *hic hic* got stuck!"

By the time she finished, I was almost rolling on the ground with laughter.

"It's not *hic* funny *hic*!" she insisted, which only succeeded in cause Liz to start laughing, which triggered Sarah, Callie, and me. We must have looked awful cause people walking by gave us the oddest looks.

"You girls are out of your minds!" Jason exclaimed looking down at us.

"And we love it!" I said, rather indignant.

"I don't think he meant offense Lil." Michael said to me softly, taking my hand. My stomach fluttered. He was the only one besides Kari who could calm my red head temper down. I put my head on his shoulder and relaxed. The weather was no less than perfect. It was warm, with a wonderful cool breeze that carried the hint of rain. I think I sighed, cause Kari gave a slight giggle. I looked at her and saw she was wrapped up in Jason's arms, looking comfortable. I looked at her eyes, and still saw the sadness. She looked at me, smiled, but none of it went away. I hope Jason will heal the wounds of her heart. Oh god, I'm even starting to sound like her in my mind. Those damn wonderful novels she's letting me read. I smiled, feeling rather elated. Damn Kari and her influence…

~Speaking of Karina…~

Jason is wonderful. He makes me feel like I'm someone special. No one has ever made me feel that way before. As a matter of fact, it's been rather the opposite. Lily looks so happy with Michael. We're only thirteen and have 'boyfriends'. We are such dorks. Black, Potter, and Pettigrew look uncomfortable being around us 'couples'. Its really funny watching them avert their eyes. I look over at Remus and he's trying hard not to laugh. He glances over at me, and he can't hold it in any longer, he starts laughing.

"Why are you laughing Remus?" Liz asked him, trying to twist around to see his face.

"Sirius, James, and Peter look out of place!" and he laughed even harder.

"Hey! You're the one that dragged us over here." Peter said resentfully.

"I could get a girl anytime!" Sirius said with a casual wave of his hand.

"Oh really?" Oh great, I had to start something.

"Really Karr I could. Don't believe me?" he smirked at me, and I felt like slapping him then and there. I can't believe this is the same guy that took me to the hospital wing!

"Well, Black, if your such a 'ladies man' why don't you have one now?" Lily asked, getting rather annoyed herself by the sound of her voice.

"I'm in the market." He winked at me and raised his eyebrows suggestively. I felt Jason tense up and I gave Black a cold look.

"Get over yourself Black, I'm perfectly happy right now." I squeezed Jason's hand to make him calm down. He kissed the top of my head and loosened up a bit.

Black didn't say anything but just looked at me funny. I had to bite my tongue to stop from saying something.

"Anyways…what are you guys going to do in Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Sarah asked, trying to smooth ruffled feathers. She absolutely hated fighting.

"Well…everything. Zonko's first most definitely though." Potter said instantly. A group of girls wandered up near us and started giggling. One of the number broke up from them and headed towards us.

"Umm… hi… I… Uhhhh…" she said nervously. I sighed, a gaggle of giggling girls. Me and Lily came up with that. Apparently, since Potter and Black were so good looking and could play Quidditch, they were instant celebrities. Every girl wanted a piece of them, and the prats went along with it. Honestly, if the only thing I hate more than arrogant prats, are Slytherins, except Callie, and my father. An involuntary shudder ran up my spine when I thought of my father.

"What's wrong?" Jason whispered in my ear. I still hadn't told him why I was so upset. I know, bad move on my part, but I don't want to make any of his decisions biased in the future. Still…this might cause bad things in the future, if there is one.

"Nothing, just one of those chills moments." I whispered back. I know, bad me. 

"Will you go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?" the girl finally sputtered out to Black.

He looked at me and then said, "Sure, why not? Sorry Karr, you lost your chance."

I will not yell…I will not yell…I will not…

"BLACK! WHAT IN THE NAME OF HELL MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD EVER GO ANYWHERE WITH YOU! YOU ARE THE MOST IGNORANT PRAT ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH! JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, IMPLYING THAT ANY GIRL WOULD DROP THEIR LIVES JUST FOR YOU AT ANYTIME!" I scrambled up and ran off towards he castle. I heard two pairs of feet behind me, but I didn't stop. Running up three floors, I finally stopped and slid down against the wall, breathing rather hard. Lily and Remus were in front of me in no less than ten seconds.

"Kari, what just happened back there?" 

"I dunno Lils, he just pissed me off so badly. He has some nerve!"

"He didn't mean any harm Kari, he's just like that." Remus said, sitting next to her on the floor.

"I know, but its like he's just using her. I don't think he really cares, and then he's gonna go and hurt her, and he won't even care, and OH I DON'T KNOW!"

Lily's face grew worried and she sat down on the other side of me and hugged me.

"Don't mind him, maybe she'll realize it and stop before it's too late." But I knew she was wrong. That poor giggling girl would get hurt, and you never recover from being hurt, it just becomes a dull ache, then just a scar. But I just nodded dumbly.

"Come on Kari, let's go outside, it's a beautiful day, and I'm sure Jason would love to spend it with you." Remus smiled, getting up, and pulling me up with him. 

"Yeah right Remmy, you just want to see Liz." I said teasingly trying to make myself feel better. His pinks turned a little pink and I laughed. Even to me it sounded a little hollow. I haven't had a carefree laugh since I was six. That was seven years ago. Who knows if I ever will laugh a little girl laugh again…

~Sirius~

Jason just watched Kari run off and was about to follow, when Lily stopped him.

"She won't want you to see her this way. Trust me on this."

"Why is Lupin going then?" he asked suspiciously. Watching Remus get up and look anxiously at Kari's retreating back.

"Because he's seen her this way."

"Well, alright…" And they ran off, following Kari.

"Black, why were you hitting on MY girlfriend?"

"You should be thanking me, I just proved she really cares about you." I said sullenly, ignoring the girl who just asked me out. Her name was Heather…or maybe it was Melanie. It didn't matter cause the only girl I was thinking about was Karina. Over the past week she had this look of loneliness about her that was beginning to be unbearable. I wanted to know what happened that night, but either no one knew, or they "couldn't tell me". Remus knew. He was friends with her, and he gets this weird look in his eyes when he looks at her. Not sympathetic, but…I don't know how to describe it.

"THANKING YOU! YOU JUST PISSED OFF MY GIRLFRIEND!" he said a little loudly in my opinion, then, he said quieter, "Don't you think she has enough problems without you making her uncomfortable?" He gave me a cold glare. I got the feeling he still thought that it was me that made Karr all upset last week.

"Siri, what's going on?" the blonde asked me with a look that was quite sickening.

"Nothing…"

"So, Mallory, tell us about yourself." James said. So her name was Mallory. I guess I should remember that.

"Well, I'm a Hufflepuff fourth year. And I'm half blood…"

"Kari!" I looked up suddenly hearing her name.

"Hi!" she said a little too happily.

~Guess who…LILY~

"Kari, are you sure you'll be alright going back down there?"

"Yes Lils, I'll be fine" Kari sighed.

"Come on Kari, I'll make sure Sirius doesn't do anything else to piss you off." Remus said, punching her shoulder lightly.

The tree was coming into view and by the looks of it, nothing much had happened.

"Kari!" Jason said loudly.

"Hi!" Kari said, her voice dripping with fake happiness.

"Sorry about that Michael." I whispered, kissing his cheek. I looked around to Kari, and saw Potter staring at me. He caught my glance and gave me a wink. What a prick. Doesn't he see my red hair?

"What was that for Potter?" I asked icily.

"Nothing fair Lily."

"What did you say to her?" Michael asked quietly, turning around to face him.

"Michael, don't." 

"Lily, you can't let him treat you like that. I can't let him."

"Don't. Please, let me handle it. I can take care of myself."

"Aww, does Lawrence have anger problems?" James asked mockingly.

"Potter. Stop. Now."

"Sure Evans, anything for you."

I gritted my teeth and pulled Michael away from the group. 

"Keep calm Michael. I don't care what he says. Just let it go."

"He's harassing you! Just like Black did to Kari last week," he said through clenched teeth. I gasped. Is that what they thought? That Black tried to…do something to Kari?

"Michael, that isn't what happened! I don't know why Black brought her in, but he didn't do anything to her. There are a lot of things I wouldn't put past him, but that is just…no, he wouldn't do that." I can't believe I'm sticking up for Black.

"Then why was Kari so upset?" he asked me, his eyes boring into mine.

"I…can't tell you…" I whispered, looking at the ground.

"Don't you trust me?" he asked. No…not this…

"I… we're only thirteen. We should get to know each other before we rush into something so serious. I mean, we are only thirteen." I was still looking at the ground. How could something like this happen so soon?

"Whatever makes you comfortable."

"Ok, I'll… what did you say?"

"I said, 'whatever makes you comfortable'."

I almost cried right then and there. Instead of crying, I hugged him.

AN: I can't stand this chapter. But, it took me forever to write. I couldn't get it to flow. Erg.


	12. Love is an Understatement

****

Sorry the last chapter took so long to update, but hopefully, this chapter will be easier to write. 

Thank you to all my faithful and wonderful reviewers! You guys make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

And of course the…

Disclaimer- I looked up the cult, and found out that to join, all you have to do pierce one nipple, tattoo the other, go to a karaoke bar and sing "God Save the Queen", and last but not least, sacrifice a prairie dog. But, it still doesn't make it so I own Harry Potter…J.K. Rowling still does…

~James~

*Bounce* "Wake up James!" *Bounce*

Incoherent mumbling from yours truly. What the hell is Sirius doing jumping on my bed. It's Saturday. Sleep in day.

"Stop mumbling James or you'll miss your date with Chelsea."

"Who's Chelsea?" I heard myself mumble.

"Didn't quite catch that James!" Sirius stopped bouncing and grinned at me.

I groaned, then sat up, taking in what was going on around me. Peter was coming out of the shower, dressed, but his hair was wet. Remus was leaning against the backboard of his bed reading, and Sirius was going through his trunk trying to find a shirt.

"Hey James, the shower is free since everyone but you has taken one." Peter said smiling at me.

"Hogsmeade today right? That's why you're waking me up?"

"Yes James, and you have a date with Chelsea Jones. She's Hufflepuff, one of Mallory's friends… honey colored hair, blue eyes…" Remus said, jarring my memory.

__

Flashback

Lily and Michael had just come back from talking, and Sirius was getting a little too friendly with Mallory.

"James, could I ask you something?" a sweet sounding voice came from behind me.

I turned around and there was a pretty girl standing there, looking quite calm.

"Sure." I ran my hand through my hair. She smiled a pretty smile.

"Wanna go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?"

"Alright." I grinned at her, and she sat down next to me. The next thing I knew, her mouth was all over my neck and someone, most likely Evans, shouted at us to get a room. She looked embarrassed and ran off. Not without a kiss good bye and a "I'll see you tomorrow at ten."

End Flashback

"I remember now. Ok, Hogsmeade with her. Meet her at ten. What time is it?"

"It's nine, you have plenty of time." Remus said, getting up. "I'm going to go and down to breakfast with Lily and Kari, I'll see you down there."

"Bye Remus." Peter called after him and Sirius said, in an almost sing song voice, "Bye Remmy!"

I got up and went to take my shower, which only usually takes me ten minutes.

Ten minutes later…

"Have you seen my jeans?"

"Which ones?" Sirius asked, looking up from his trunk, he still hadn't found the shirt he was looking for.

"The only pair I own…" 

"Are these them?" Peter held up a pair of jeans.

"Yup, thanks Pete." I slipped them on over my boxers.

"Sure thing."

I finished dressing, pulling on a dark red shirt, threw Sirius the blue one he was looking for, and the three of us headed down to breakfast.

We walked past the Slytherin table, giving them glares, and sat down with Remus. 

"…and the other muffin says, "Ahh! A talking muffin!" 

Remus laughed a little and I looked at him and he just said, "A joke Kari was telling me."

"Another one?" Sirius asked, grabbing a piece of sausage and biting into it.

"Yes, but this one was more corny than funny." Karr grinned and looked at Evans who said, "Tell them the banana joke."

"They don't wanna hear the banana joke."

"Sure we do, tell us." Peter said, he was finally getting comfortable around girls. I have to say, most of it is my doing, with a little help from Sirius and Remus of course…

"Alright. Knock, knock." Karr looked at us, shaking her head.

There was a pause I and I was beginning to wonder if it was really a banana joke after all.

"Honestly! Lily, knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Why are you interrupting the joke Evans?" 

"It's part of the joke Potter. It's a muggle thing, you wouldn't understand," she said, a little rudely if you ask me.

"Banana."

"Banana who?"

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?"

"Why are you repeating yourselves?" 

"Pettigrew, don't interrupt please, we're not done." Karr sighed, "Just never mind. There's no point in finishing the joke if no one except us will understand it."

"Good point. What time is it?"

"Almost ten." Remus replied, glancing at his watch.

"Well we have to go then. See you Remus." Karr waved walking towards the Ravenclaw table.

"Bye Remus." Evans got up to follow her.

"See you guys at two." Remus waved.

I spit out my pumpkin juice.

"Remus what was that?"

"What?"

"You're meeting Karr and Evans at two?"

"Yeah, my girlfriend is friends with them and so am I so we're going to meet up at two in the Three Broomsticks. Is there a problem?" he picked up a piece of bacon as if it was no big deal.

"When are you going to spend time with us? Your friends?"

"I'm only staying at the Three Broomsticks for about half an hour. We can go anywhere for the rest of the day." he shrugged.

"Hey Siri!"

"Hi Mal." he answered, not even looking up from his plate. "I'll be ready to go in a minute."

"I'll wait." she smiled and sat down. What a ditz. Couldn't she tell he wanted to talk with us?

"Have you guys seen Karina and Lily?" Sarah asked, coming up and tapping Peter on the shoulder.

"They left about five minutes ago." he said a little nervously. He still wasn't comfortable around girls.

"Alright, see you guys around, then." she waved and walked off to tell Callie.

"We should all go cause it's five till now."

"Alright Remmy poo." Sirius said in a sickening sweet voice. "Come Mal, we're leaving to Hogsmeade. See you guys at two thirty at the Three Broomsticks."

"What am I going to do while you guys are off on your dates?" Peter asked suddenly.

~Lily~

"Michael, would you stop doing that?"

"Why, its funny to see you get so worked up only to smile at me."

"Its really distracting though."

"Does it look like I care?"

"No…but you should…"

He was so annoying. Yet so cute. He wouldn't stop grabbing my hand and swinging it back and forth like we were three. I, on the other hand, was trying to take in all the Hogsmeade scenery.

"Lets go in there!" I exclaimed, seeing the word 'chocolate'.

"Honeydukes…I should have known." he laughed and kissed the top of my head. The butterflies started in my stomach. I just knew I was grinning stupidly.

We walked into the shop, and I think my jaw dropped and my mouth was opened as wide as it could get. There was every kind of candy I could have ever thought of and more.

"Wow…"

"Its great isn't it? We used to come here every year when I was little. I always loved it."

"Its amazing…look at all the chocolate!"

"Pick out some and I'll buy it for you."

"Really!" I squealed.

Michael laughed as I ran off towards the fudge. They have it all. I mean it! Every kind. Right from my favorite to…well…my other favorite. After many long arguments with myself, I chose peanut butter chocolate swirl fudge.

"Took you long enough." Michael teased, and poked my side. I jumped.

"Hey, they have all my favorites! I couldn't choose!" I said, in a mock hurt tone.

"Is there any kind you don't like?"

"Well…no…but that made it even harder!"

He just laughed and I smiled sheepishly. He paid for my fudge and we headed out. The lovely weather was still holding out, but storm clouds were gathering to the north and I pointed this out to Michael.

"Cold weather is coming then."

"I hope it won't be too cold, unless there is snow."

"Snow? Not until December, at least I hope so. That would make Quidditch hard to play."

I shook my head, "Quidditch players!"

"Hey, you know you love 'em!"

I let out an exasperated sigh, and he gave me a funny look out of the corner of his mouth. I will not laugh…no laughing… I should stop doing that cause it never works. I burst out in a fit of laughter at the look on his face. His blonde hair was falling in front of his face and his dark blue eyes were twinkling with laughter. His face was screwed up into a half laughing half hurt expression, and he looked so funny.

"Stop *laugh* looking at me *laugh* like that!" I gasped between laughs.

"What?!" he asked in a confused voice. What a liar! He knew exactly what I meant and he knew it, just by the look in his gorgeous eyes, then he did something horrible. He started tickling me, in the middle of High Street.

"Michael *laugh* STOP *laugh* I can't *laugh* BREATHE! *laugh*"

"Oh, I dunno, I think I should keep it going till we get into Zonko's. Maybe even longer." 

"NO!" I screeched. I was laughing so hard, he was holding me up, but still tickling me. 

We walked down High Street towards Zonko's like that. We collected quite a few funny looks, then we saw Remus and Liz.

"Michael, what are you doing to her?" Liz asked, smiling.

"Tickling her," he said simply.

"Liz, *laugh* Remus, *laugh* make him stop! *laugh*"

"Oh, I dunno, I think you're doing good on your own." Remus smiled.

"Remus!"

Michael just picked me up around the middle and carried me up to Zonko's. I had stopped laughing by the time we were there, but he still hadn't put me down.

"Please put me down!"

"Nah, I kinda like carrying you."

"You're going to get tired, then you'll have to put me down." I pointed out to him.

"Well until then, I'll keep carrying you."

"We won't fit through the doors." I said, pointing to the doors to emphasize my point.

"Yeah we will." he said walking into the Zonko's. The door expanded.

"You made your point, put me down."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because this is fun."

"No, it's annoying."

"The basis of its appeal."

"You're taking my words!"

"You're my girlfriend, I have my rights."

I stuck my tongue out at him and crossed my arms. "You're so stubborn."

"No more than you."

"ARGH!"

"That's a nice comeback."

I didn't say anything, but I did grumble. I took the time too look around the shop. The shelves were covered from bottom to tippy top of every kind of gag, joke, and prank device known to wizard and muggle kind. Frogspawn, biting teacups, dungbombs, fake wands, trick sweets, etc. I don't think they were missing anything.

"Can you put me down, please. I wanna look around."

"Well since you said please…" he put me down.

"I said please earlier!"

"Yeah, well, I wasn't tired then."

"I told you." I stuck my tongue out at him again.

He just laughed and grabbed my hand. 

~Sarah~

"Come on Callie. Let's go to the Shrieking Shack. Rumors are going around that some violent ghosts moved in and I wanna see if it's true."

"Ok, sure. We have about one more hour till we go to the Three Broomsticks." she shrugged and followed me up the hill.

"Maybe…this wasn't…the best idea…I've ever…come up with…" I panted.

"You…got…that…right!" Callie gasped from behind me.

The hill was steep and long, and up ahead, I could see the dark outline of a house.

"We're…almost there."

"Good…"

Upon racing the top of the hill, I doubled over, with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

"Hey Sarah, Callie." 

I looked up. It was Pettigrew. Why wasn't he with the rest of the Marauders? He seemed to guess my unanswered question on his own.

"Sirius, James, and Remus all have dates, so I've been wandering around on my own."

"Oh, same with me and Callie. We're all meeting up at two in the Three Broomsticks."

"Yeah, we're meeting up at two thirty."

"Cool." Callie said from beside me. "This place is kinda chilly." she pulled her jacket tighter around herself. We could wear muggle clothes to Hogsmeade.

"Yeah, it is. The house looks kind of, foreboding… you think?" Pettigrew asked nonchalantly.

"I think its cool. Do you really think there are ghosts, or its just a rumor?" Callie asked. 

"I don't think its cool. I think its kinda scary." I shuddered.

"That's what makes it cool. I mean, its just plain creepy." Callie smiled.

"I don't think it's cool, its interesting, yeah, but cool, no." Pettigrew said a little absently. He was giving the house a look that plainly said he didn't like it.

"Yeah…well…" I left off, looking at the house.

"Well I'm gonna go. I've seen enough up here. See you guys later." Pettigrew started walking off.

"Hey Pettigrew, wanna hang out with us till their dates are over?" I called after him.

He shrugged, "Sure," and walked back to us.

After about five more minutes of Callie looking at the house, we made our way back down to the village.

"Where haven't you guys gone yet?"

"Dervish and Bange's, and the Three Broomsticks, but we're going there later so…" Callie said.

"Alright, lets go on to Dervish and Bange's then. I haven't been there either. We can go to the Three Broomsticks early. Just to sit."

"Sounds good to me." I said. We saw Sirius and his date, Mallory, she was in my House, a year above me though, going into a little place called Madame Puddifoot's. Pettigrew waved, and we walked on.

"There it is." Callie pointed out.

We walked in and a little bell tinkled.

"Welcome. I'm Mr. Bange, how can I help you?" a rather tall wizard in green robes said smiling at us.

"We're just here to look around. First time in Hogsmeade." I said, smiling back.

"Ah, well if there is anything you need, just call, and either me or Ms. Dervish will be there to help you."

"Thank you." Callie said, and went to look around.

The shop was full of Wizarding supplies, rather like a thrift shop. A little bit of everything.

"Sarah, come look at this book." Callie called from a couple of shelves over.

"What is it?" I asked, walking over. It was a book entitled, _Weird Wizarding Dilemmas. _

"What about it?" 

"Look at this," Callie opened the book to a page. 

It read:

__

How to grow your nose hair into ringlets.

1. Make sure all nose hairs are clipped.

2. Point your wand at your left nostril first and say, Shirak Ponus.

__

3. Repeat process with right nostril

4. Wait 2-3 days and you should be walking around with curly ringlets growing out your nose. The envy of all your friends.

I snorted. "What in the name of Merlin!?"

"I know, I thought you would enjoy that." Callie giggled.

"What's so funny?" a girl asked coming up from behind us.

"Oh, hi Alice. Its just this book." Callie held it up for her to read. 

Alice giggled and said, "That sounds like something one of the Marauders would do."

"Yeah, it does." I giggled.

"Did I hear the Marauders mentioned? What did we do this time?" Peter came up from behind Callie.

"Oh, nothing, but this spell sounds like something one of you would do." Alice smiled. She was a Ravenclaw, same year as us. She was one of my second cousins. Her and her brothers, Fabian and Gideon. My family was really close with the Prewett's, so I knew Alice fairly well.

"Yeah, that does sound like something Sirius would do." Peter laughed, then he looked at Alice, "Aren't you Gideon and Fabian Prewett's sister? Alice right?"

"Yup, that's me. No need to ask who you are. Peter Pettigrew, one of the infamous Marauders. You know my brothers?"

"Well, they're a year above us, but they're both on the Quidditch team with James and Sirius, so, yeah, we hang out with them sometimes."

"What do they say about me?" Alice asked, suspiciously. I laughed and knew perfectly well they probably talked about all the stupid things they had done to Alice over the years with the Marauders.

"Oh, nothing really…" Peter started to say, but Alice interrupted.

"I don't believe you, they have probably been getting their more recent pranks on me from you guys. Ugh, they are so immature." 

"I agree on that one!" I said, smiling.

"I knew you would Sarah, cause they have pulled some of their dumb jokes on you too. Especially over the summer. Erg, you Marauders!" Alice threw her hands up dramatically.

Peter smiled shyly. "I'm not the brains behind the operations, I just do what I'm told."

"Hey, its about time for us to meet up with everyone." Callie interrupted, looking at her watch, "Sorry, Alice."

"Its alright, I'm going to meet some of my friends too. See ya later." she waved walking out of the shop.

"Bye Alice, see you around." I called.

"Well, lets go, we don't wanna be late." Peter said, walking towards the door.

"Please come again!" Mr. Bange said pleasantly as we walked out.

"You can count on it!" Callie waved and walked out.

~Karina~

"Jason, if you want it, you should get it."

"I don't know, I mean, I could just ask my mom to get it for me, my birthday's only about a month away…" he said uncertainly.

"Whatever you want Jason, but hurry, we have to meet everyone in about fifteen minutes." 

He had been debating whether to buy some new arm guards from Quality Quidditch Supplies or not for the past half hour. As soon as he decided yes, he would get in line, and change his mind. It was rather frustrating on my part, because quidditch wasn't exactly my favorite thing.

"I'm going to get them," he decided. 

Finally, there was no one in line, so he didn't have time to change his mind. He bought them, and we headed out of the store.

"Lets go into Honeydukes real quick please, my chocolate supply is dwindling."

"Ok, sounds good to me."

We went in and I dropped my jaw. They had everything. But I didn't have time to look around cause we had to be in the Three Broomsticks in about five minutes and I was starving. 

"I'll come back later with Lily, Sarah, Callie, and Liz, there's to much to choose from for just five minutes."

"Sure, lets go, there isn't far to go to the Three Broomsticks." he grabbed my hand and we walked down to the pub.

Walking in I caught the smell of chips. (AN: I always wanted to say chips instead of fries…)

"Look there they are." Jason pointed to a table.

We walked back to their table together and sat down. I was surprised to see Pettigrew there with Sarah and Callie.

"Hey guys." I sat down and Jason sat next to me.

"Hey Kari, Jason. How was the date?" Sarah asked smiling.

"It was great, we went everywhere. The only bad part was having to listen to Jason debate with himself about whether he should get some new arm guards or not." I giggled and looked at him. He smiled and put his arm around my waist.

"You know you had fun wandering around the store till I was done." he kissed my cheek.

"Erg, no. Quidditch isn't exactly my thing. I've only been to one match and that was the first Gryffindor one n first year. I didn't really like it." I confessed. "What is there to eat around here?"

"What? One quidditch match? You didn't like it?" Jason sputtered.

"How could you not like Quidditch?" Pettigrew exclaimed.

"Who doesn't like quidditch? Karr?" Remus asked, sitting down with Liz.

"Yeah! How can you not like quidditch?"

"Oh calm down Pettigrew, is not that big a deal, I don't particularly like it either. I only went to the one match Kari went to." Lily said, sitting down with Michael. She looked happy and I smiled at her. She smiled too and we looked at Pettigrew who was looking at us with a weird look on his face.

"I have never met someone, let alone two people who didn't like quidditch!" he exclaimed.

"Well now you have." I answered, "I'm hungry, can we get some chips?"

"Sure, and Meredith told me we should try the butterbeer too." Lily said.

"Yeah, she told me that too."

"Lil, since when didn't you like quidditch?" Michael asked, frowning.

"Since first year, and I didn't say I didn't like it, I'm just not a big fan."

"I've tried to get them to come to the matches, but they don't ever want to. They always catch up with their homework." Remus shook his head, "I'm always trying to get them to come."

"Well, it's a good time to take advantage of the quietness of the common room. We actually get our work done then." I said, sticking my tongue out at Remus, "And I'm starving, my stomach is yelling at me to feed it! Come on Lily, lets go get some food and drinks." I got up.

"Sure. Anyone want something? Hand over the money." Lily held out her hand, and people put in orders for butterbeer and chips.

We got to the bar, put in orders and stood around waiting.

"So, how was your date?" Lily asked me smiling.

"It was good till we got to the quidditch store, then it took Jason half an hour to decide if her wanted new arm guards or not. I still had a great time." I smiled, "How was yours?"

"Wonderful, we went everywhere and he bought me some fudge from Honeydukes." Lily grinned.

"Ah, chocolate, the key to your heart. I only got to walk into Honeydukes so that is our first stop after we break off with the guys alright?"

"Sure thing."

"Her you ladies go, that will be two galleons and eight sickles." the barmaid said smiling.

Lily handed over the money, we each grabbed a tray, and walked back to our table.

"Food!" Liz cried and grabbed her chips.

Everyone else grabbed their orders and we sat around talking and enjoying ourselves till two thirty. That's when Sirius, James, and their dates showed up. Before they could sit down, me, Lily, Sarah, Liz, and Callie left, waving bye to Remus and Peter. I kissed Jason and Lily kissed Michael, and we headed over to Honeydukes.

"Its wonderful in here!" exclaimed looking at all the fudge, trying to decide which on I wanted.

"I agree!" Sarah smiled, picking up a bag of sugar quills.

"This is heaven on Earth." Lily sighed, picking up some Fizzing Whizbees and putting them into the little basket we were carrying around, it had all the sweets we were going to buy.

Liz picked up some levitating sherbet balls and threw them into the basket, "I love this place."

"Love is an understatement!" Callie sighed, throwing some bags of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans in the basket.

Finally choosing about five different types of fudge, I said, "I love this place too, but we should stop putting this in. We only have a certain amount of money."

"Yeah…" Lily said a little wistfully, looking at the side of the store they hadn't even gone over to yet.

"Let's pay for this and leave. We only have an hour till dinner starts." Sarah said, glancing over her shoulder at the ice mice.

"Ok." we all said at once, sounding and looking so thoroughly depressed that when we started to pay for all of it, the owners asked us what was wrong.

"We don't want to leave. We don't know when the next visit is." Liz said sadly.

Finally leaving Honeydukes, we walked back up to the castle, discussing random things.

"See you guys later." I called to Callie, Liz, and Sarah as me and Lily headed up to the common room.

"Today was great. I'm going to like being able to go to Hogsmeade." Lily said as she went through a tapestry.

"Yeah, it'll be easier to get sweets now." I giggled.

"Yeah."

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked us smiling, she had heard us talking.

"Wayfarers."

"Thank you ladies."

I walked over the threshold into the common room and smiled. Students were milling around either playing exploding snap or just talking. Some were finishing homework while other weren't doing anything in particular. Walking across to the dorm, Gina and Denise gave me evil looks, but I ignored them, well almost, it still hurt to have someone hate you for no particular reason. Lily went into dorm and plopped onto her bed.

"What a day." she said, it was muffled into her pillow, but still legible.

"I agree." I sat on my bed, and put the bag full of candy under my pillow.

"Come on, let's go down to dinner, I'm hungry again." Lily sat up.

"Me too. Come on." I held out my arm.

She out her arm through mine and we walked down the dorm stair, waved to Remus, who was just walking into the common room with Black, Potter, and Pettigrew, and skipped down to the Great Hall. I couldn't help thinking, 'Maybe my life is pulling itself together finally.'


	13. The Ripping of the Parchment

****

For the moment, my writer's block is gone! So I am going to take full advantage of it! Yay! I redid parts of the earlier chapters so if you wanna check those out…

Disclaimer: Nope…still don't own Harry Potter, the wonderful J.K. Rowling does…

~Sirius~

I woke up to the sound of the shower. That is not my preferred way to wake up any morning, at least on one where I don't have to get up.

"Stupid Remus and his insomnia…" I grumbled and sat up.

James and Peter were still sleeping. Peter was snoring a little and James' foot was twitching. I could wake them up, but I don't want to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of the week wondering when they'll be getting me back. 

"Sirius? What are you doing up?" Remus came out of the bathroom, dressed, his hair still sopping wet.

"The sound of the shower woke me up." I shrugged. 

"Sorry, I'm going to breakfast with Lily and Kari and they went to get ready so I decided to take a shower."

"'S alright. I'm going to take a shower before James and Pete get up anyways. They always complain about my long showers anyways."

Remus let out a small laugh, "Yeah, well, when you're done, if they aren't up yet, come on down to breakfast. I'll be there."

"Sure Remus. See ya later."

He waved and walked out of the dorm, going to meet Karr and Evans. He was getting real chummy with them lately. Apparently they were insomniacs too, and now Remus spent the nights talking with them. At least he isn't moping around the dorm keeping us up now.

I grabbed some jeans and a my dark grey Falmouth Falcons shirt and went to take my shower.

"SIRIUS! HURRY UP I HAVE TO USE THE LOO!" Peter shouted while banging on the door. 

Turning off the water, I pulled on my clothes and went into the dorm. Pete rushed into the bathroom and James was sitting up on his bed, his hair looking even more tousled than usual.

"Morning James."

"M-m-morning Sirius." he yawned, and ruffled his hair, "Not the Falcons again." he groaned looking at my shirt.

"Don't insult the Falcons. They play a tough game." 

"Because they cheat! They practically kill all the opposing members of the other team to win. Look what they did to the Magpies. I mean they are downright dangerous!" James argued.

I smirked and pointed to my shirt, "Do you forget their motto? 'Let us win, but if we can not win, let us break a few heads.'"

James just shook his head. Then Pete came out of the bathroom, showered and all.

"Where's Remus?" he asked, going through his trunk looking for something.

"He went to breakfast with Evans and Karr. Like always." 

"Every morning. Sirius, where did you put my Bats shirt?" James was going through his trunk.

"I resent that. I don't know where it is."

"James, its over there, hanging off the mirror." Peter pointed out.

"Oh, thanks Pete."

"Anytime James."

"I'm going on down to breakfast, I'm starving." I announced, walking out of the dorm.

"Alright, see you in about ten minutes." Peter called, his head still inside his trunk.

I walked down into the common room, and it was completely empty. No one was up. I pulled up my arm, and to my surprise it was seven. Grumbling, I made my way down to the Great Hall. I walked in, and the only people in it were Remus, Karr, Evans, and Dumbledore.

"Do you guys always get here this early?" I asked, grabbing a piece of toast.

"Yup." Remus said, spooning more eggs onto his plate.

I became absorbed into eating, and James and Peter came down and started eating too. I wasn't really paying attention, until I heard the sound of ripping parchment. I looked up and saw Evans tearing up a letter.

"What are you doing Evans?"

She didn't answer me.

"Lily, what's wrong?" Karr asked her softly.

She still didn't say anything.

"Lils, what happened?"

She talked so I couldn't hear what she said.

"Oh! Lily, I… I don't know what to say!" Karr said quietly.

"It's not fair. She was only three."

Karr hugged Evans, and I was left in the dark. I looked at Remus who was holding Evans' hand and all he did was shake his head at me.

~Lily~

No one except Dumbledore was in the Great Hall when we got there. He looked over at us, and nodded, but there was something missing. His eyes weren't twinkling so much.

"What's wrong with Dumbledore?" Kari asked me, looking a little worried.

"I dunno… hey look, early post. One's coming this way." The tawny owl dropped a letter in front of me. It was from home. I picked it up and opened it. A feeling of foreboding passed over me.

Lily, 

The most awful thing happened last night. Aunt Daisy, Uncle Dave, and Camellia were murdered. The police don't know what to say about it. I'm sorry you had to find out through a letter, and only your third week back, but you have right to know. Your mom is in a right state, and we hope you can make it to the funeral on Monday. We've already sent a letter to Professor Dumbledore, and Lily Flower, don't forget that we love you and we're here for you.

Love, 

Daddy

I looked around to Dumbledore, and he looked back at me, his eyes dull and sad. Camellia, my baby cousin, she was dead. She was only three. Mom's only sister, Daisy. They were best friends. Unlike Petunia and me. Mom was so disappointed when Petunia started to hate me. Now she only has a memory of her sister. Who would do such a thing? Killing innocent people. A child. I felt tears welling up in my eyes from hurt and anger. I started ripping up the paper.

"What are you doing Evans?" I heard Black talking, but I didn't understand a word he said.

"Lily, what's wrong?" Kari asked me. I didn't quite hear her.

"Lils, what happened?" she asked again, this time I figured out what she was saying and told her.

"Mum's sister, Daisy, my uncle and little cousin were murdered last night. Camellia was only three…" I muttered.

"Oh! Lily, I… I don't know what to say!" Just don't say sorry. It won't bring them back.

"It's not fair. She was only three." I felt Remus' hand grasp mine. He didn't ask questions, he was just there for me. 

I started crying then. How could such a thing happen? Kari wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly. It's not fair. She never got a chance to live. Never got a chance to know what it was like to go to school. Or have true friends. Mum lost her best friend, her sister. Dad lost friend too. He was friends with Uncle Dave in high school. My parents just lost part of their life and they'll never get it back. My little cousin will never grow up. She will always be a little three year old torn from her life. My aunt and uncle will never know how it feels to watch their child grow up. They're gone.

"Lils, come on. Stand up. I'm taking you to the 'room'. Come on." Kari gently helped me up. 

"Kari, what's wrong with Lily?" Sarah asked. 

"Let's not talk about it here, help me get her back to the 'room'. Come on Lily." Kari put her arm around under my arms, with Sarah on the other side, and they helped me make my way up to the room of requirement.

Sarah let me go and walked by the room, and we clambered in. It was a cozy private common room. Kari set me down on a couch and I burst into tears.

~Karina~

"Sarah, go and tell Liz and Callie where we are, and then find Michael and Jason and tell them that we're not going to see them today."

She nodded and went off.

"Lils, here, take a tissue."

Lily looked up at me and the look on her face mirrored my own when I was younger. When I felt lost and alone after a fight with my dad. That was before I lost feeling for those things.

She took the tissue and wiped her eyes.

"Why did it happen to them?"

I looked at her in the eyes. "I don't know. Why do any of these things happen to any of us?"

"Who would kill a three year old? What kind of psychotic weirdo would do such a thing?" her voice broke and she started crying again.

I sat next to her and rubbed her back, trying to soothe her, but I knew nothing could help heal her except time. Let's just call it past experiences. 

I heard the door open, and I turned to look at who it was. Sarah, Liz, and Callie came over to our couch and squished themselves onto it, next to me and Lily.

Soon, we were all in a many armed hug trying to make Lily feel better. After awhile, we broke apart and Lily's eyes were dry for the moment.

"I should talk to Dumbledore. I have to get home by tomorrow." she said in a dead voice.

"Come on Lil, I'll take you." I patted her arm in a reassuring way.

She stood up and we walked out of the room and down the corridors.

"…attacked last night. They were muggles. At least that's what father said, it was a small family." a voice was saying down the hall. Avery's voice.

"I was wondering when he would attack again. Soon it won't be just muggles he's attacking either. It will be the blood traitors as well." Rosier's voice followed.

Suddenly, they came into view. Their mouths curved into sneers.

"What are you two mudbloods doing out by yourselves?"

"Shut it Avery, I'm rather busy." I pushed past him. He grabbed my arm.

"Just wait, you and your little friend will get what's coming to you Karr."

"Well till then, get your slimy hand off me." I hissed. He let go.

Grabbing Lily's arm I rushed down to Dumbledore's office seething with anger. It was Voldemort that killed Lily's family.

We came up to the gargoyle that guarded the entrance, when I realized, I didn't know the password.

"Shit." I muttered. "Lil, we're gonna have to wait until someone lets us in or Dumbledore comes by cause I don't know the password."

She just nodded her head. Sighing, I slid down the wall to a sitting position and Lily did the same. I took a sideways glance at her and her eyes were staring forward, unseeing. They had an empty look to them. I put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. She looked at me and gave me a slight smile. 

"Ms. Evans, Ms. Karr, how may I help you?"

I turned to see Professor Dumbledore smiling at us.

"Professor, Lily needs to talk to you about going home tomorrow."

"Yes, her parents sent me a letter explaining the events. Please, come up to my office."

"Yes sir. Come on Lily, let's go." I stood up, and helped her stand.

Going up the spiral staircase, we didn't say a word, in fact, we didn't talk until we were seated in front of Dumbledore's desk.

"Now, Ms. Evans, you wish to go to your home tomorrow?" he looked at her.

"Yes please sir."

"How long so you wish to stay?"

"As long a necessary sir."

"Alright. I'll send you home by Floo powder tomorrow. Come to my office at eight. The password is 'ice mice'."

"Yes sir."

"Is there anything else I may help you with?" he asked, looking at the both of us.

"Why would someone do such a thing? Kill innocent people?" Lily's voice came out harsh and quiet.

"No one really knows what compels the minds of evil. It could be ambition, or revenge, we may never know." Dumbledore said softly, looking from Lily, to me, then back to Lily. 

"It still doesn't make sense to me." Lily said dully.

"Not many things in this world do make sense, Lily, but I believe all things happen for a reason."

Lily sighed and stood up, "Thank you Professor. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yes Ms. Evans, tomorrow."

And we left.

"Voldemort will pay for what he's done. Maybe it won't be me, or you, but he'll get what's coming to him." 

"How do you know it was him?" Lily asked sharply, turning to look at me.

"Avery and Rosier were talking about it in the hall."

She didn't say anything, but we made our way up to the common room silently, both lost in our own thoughts. I kept glancing at Lily, and she always looked the same, staring ahead with a lost look.

"Password?"

"Wayfarers."

The portrait hole opened and we climbed in.

"Lily, you should go get some sleep. I have some dreamless sleep potion in my trunk if you need it."

"Yeah, I am really tired. I think I'll do that." she walked up to the dorm slowly.

Sighing, I plopped onto a couch and covered my face with my hands.

"Bad day? Its only noon." 

I took my hands off my face to see Remus standing in front of me. I patted the couch inviting him to sit next to me.

"Its only noon? Ugh, this is turning out to be a long day." 

"How's Lily?"

"She's…alive. I sent her off to sleep."

"Good, that might help her a little."

"I hope so."

"What happened?"

"Her aunt, uncle and three year old cousin were murdered by Voldemort last night." I clenched my fist and banged the couch, "She was only three! Why?! Why her?"

Remus put his hand on my shoulder, "That's the way life goes."

"Yeah, life's a bitch and then you die, so fuck it all." I said bitterly.

"She's going home tomorrow."

"Yup, for a while I would suppose. Her mum's taking it real hard."

"Are you going to be okay without her here for a while?"

"I'll be fine. I have you and Callie, Liz, Sarah, and Jason."

"But I'm the only one that's in your house, you only have two classes with each of them."

"Well, I'll survive. I don't have a choice."

"Plus, Gina and Denise aren't exactly the you know, choice people…"

"Remus Lupin, stop worrying, I'll be fine. And if they bother me, I'll hex them."

"Alright…"

"Argh! You're so frustrating!" 

He smirked. "You know you love me."

"Shut up…" I muttered, looking away in mock embarrassment.

~Lily~

I went up to the dorm, put a charm on the door, and fell on my bed. My body is physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. So tired in fact, that as soon as my head hit's the pillow, I'm fast asleep.

__

A little girl is laughing. I run, trying to find her. I'm so afraid, but I don't know why. Now I can see her, she's just a little ways ahead. I run faster, but she's still so far ahead of me.

"Come back! Stop running!" I tried to call out, but it only came as a whisper. I needed to get to her so badly, I couldn't catch up.

"Mommy!" the girl cried happily, grabbing a woman's legs in a tight embrace.

I recognize the little girl's voice.

"Hello my sweet little Camellia!"

It was my aunt Daisy and Camellia.

"AUNT DAISY! YOU'RE ALIVE!" I tried to scream, my eyes blurry with tears.

"Where are my lovely flowers?" Uncle Dave came into my view.

"Daddy!" the little girl squealed with delight. He picked her up and swung her around.

I run ahead trying to catch up to them, to warn them, but no matter how fast I run, they're always just out of reach.

Suddenly, they're blurring, just around the edges at first, but soon, they're becoming dimmer and dimmer, till they aren't there anymore.

"NO WAIT! COME BACK!" I finally find my voice.

I wok up in a cold sweat and breathing deeply. 'It was just a dream.'

Getting up to get a glass of water, I look out the window.

"Holy crap, its almost dark!" I look to the clock next to my bed and it says six thirty. "Might as well go get some dinner…"

Walking down the stairs, I see Kari sitting on a couch, all alone in a corner, reading a book. I walked over.

"Hi Kari."

She started and looked up, "Hey Lils, feel any better?"

"A little, not much, I had a bad dream."

"Not much of a surprise there, every time something bad happened to me and I fell asleep I'd have a bad dream."

"Yeah…I'm hungry, lets go to dinner."

"Ok." she set down her book and got up, stretching.

I lead the way down to the Great Hall, and we walked in silence. Not an awkward one, just, silence. In an unspoken agreement.

Walking into the Great Hall, I immediately wanted to walk back out. People were laughing and joking around, while a madman was out killing innocent people. We walked over to the Gryffindor table, waving to our friends, and sat down next to Remus, who, unfortunately was with the other Marauders.

"Hey Lils, how are you feeling?" Remus asked, looking at me with concern in his eyes.

"You want me to lie or tell the truth?" 

"The truth."

"Like shit."

"Fair enough."

I grabbed a roll and bit into it, my appetite going away.

"Come on Lil, you have to eat something, you're gonna get sick." Kari put some veggies and some chicken on my plate. "At least eat some of this."

I picked up my fork and poked at my food.

"Are you gonna eat that?"

I looked up to see Black eyeing my food. I sighed and pushed my plate to him, "Nope."

"Thanks!" he picked up my plate and scarfed it down.

"Lily, drink something then?" Kari had a note of desperation in her voice. She had had experiences like this, she would know what to do… I picked up a goblet of pumpkin juice and downed it.

"Thank you Lily."

"Sure Kari."

I looked at Remus and saw he was shaking his head at Potter, I turned my ears towards the conversation to see what was going on.

"…and then Snivellus tried to curse me, but McGonagall showed up and gave him detention!"

"James, didn't you get detention too?"

"Well sure Remus, but a small price to pay because old Snapey also got fifty points away from Slytherin!"

"What about you Sirius? What kind of trouble did you get into today?" Remus turned to Sirius.

"You'll see…" he said mysteriously, glancing at the Slytherin table. I looked over there to and I felt my blood start to boil. Avery and Rosier were laughing at something with Snape and Bellatrix. They looked over at our table and I knew exactly what they were talking about.

"Lily, just ignore it, they'll pay. I promise, they'll get what's coming to them." Kari said softly.

"I know, I just hope I'm there to see it."

Suddenly, the Slytherin food all started coming out of dishes and off of plates and into the faces of the Slytherins. Screams were heard coming from the girl, and angry shouts from the guys.

"Perfect timing." Kari smirked.

"I agree."


	14. To Tell The Truth

Thanks for all my reviewers, sorry I didn't thank you last chapter!

Disclaimer: I OWN HARRY POTTER…NOT! Did I get you?

~Lily~

"Morning Kari. What time is it?"

"Morning Lils. Its about seven, you still have an hour."

"Yeah, ready for breakfast?"

"Remus'll be down in a minute if you wanna wait for him."

"Sure." I plopped squished myself in the chair with Kari.

"Comfortable?" she asked, smiling a little.

"Yeah, your big butt's a good for something…a pillow."

"Hey! That wasn't very nice."

"I know, but it made me feel a little better."

"Well then go ahead, insult me all you want." Kari stuck out her lower lip.

"That's a nice new look for you Kari."

"Shove it Lupin."

"Nah, that's no fun. Ready for breakfast?"

"Yeah." I stood up.

"I can feel my butt again!"

"Watch it…" 

"Come Remus, escort us lovely Gryffindors to breakfast." Kari slung her arm through Remus'. I got the hint and did the same to his other arm.

"I hope Liz doesn't kill me," he laughed looking at both of us.

"She'll more than likely kill us." 

"Yeah, you're probably right, she adores you Remus." I noted, smiling at the pink tinge that appeared in Remus' cheek.

"I see you feel a little better after some sleep." he said jokingly.

"Yes, I might start going back to a normal sleep pattern. Insomnia is no fun. Plus, I don't need my mom worrying over me now, and that's all she did all summer when I wouldn't sleep." 

"Well then start sleeping again. I'm not stopping you." Karina said, a little indignantly.

"No, but Gina and Denise are."

"Well, lock them out, or you could sleep in the common room with us while we talk, or there's always the 'room'."

"Yeah. I might start charming my bed, that could work…"

"Good idea, you should start sleeping again, Kari can't really help it, and neither can I, but you are, compared to us, normal, so you should sleep like a normal person." Remus said firmly.

"Wow, getting all, maternal on me Remmy?" I said in a sickeningly sweet voice, batting my lashes at him.

"No, just looking out for one of my friend's well being."

"Well I'm flattered."

"Speaking of well being, and why we don't sleep, Remus, you have anything to tell us?" Karina said suddenly.

"Wh-what do you mean?" he stuttered, looking suddenly nervous.

"Oh Remus, stop hiding it. Just tell us!" I said, taking the hint from Kari. Maybe he'll admit to us finally what's wrong with him. We're pretty sure he's a werewolf, but we're not for positive sure, I mean, we haven't known him all that long.

"Admit to what? That my mother gets sick and I have to see her? That I've never been a good sleeper?"

Looking at Kari, and then at my watch, which read seven fifteen, we both grabbed one of Remus' arms and dragged him to the 'room'.

"Don't tell anyone about this place, especially those no good friends of yours." I said, letting go and walking three times down the corridor thinking about a place Remus will tell us finally his secret.

"How did you do that?"

"Magic, Remus, you're in Hogwarts. And I thought you were smart." Kari tsked him.

"Oh never mind."

I opened the door, and it was furnished with three comfy looking armchairs and an overstuffed couch.

"Come sit." Kari ordered, pushing him through the door and towards the middle chair.

He sat, and pulling the chairs around to face him, I said, "Admit it. Please Remus, we're your friends, we don't give a shit."

He looked at us pleadingly, but I know I saw Kari give him a stern glance, and he sighed.

"My mom gets really sick, and my dad has to work a lot, so he needs my help sometimes."

"Don't pull that crap on us Remus. We want the truth! Do we not deserve it? Do you not trust us? You know our secrets, now its time to reveal yours. If you don't fine. But don't expect much from us after this. If you really trust us, you'll tell us."

I almost said something to back up Kari, but realized that might be a little too hard. He looked away from us, and then turned back.

"I…can't do this." He said tightly.

It took a while to register.

"Fine." Kari said coldly. She got up, and looked at me.

"See you around _Lupin_." I said, putting emphasis on his surname.

We left the Room of Requirement and headed down to breakfast.

"Do you think we were a little harsh? I mean, we did just start getting to know him." I said a little timidly.

"No. He knows almost all about us. If he was really our friend, like he says, he would trust us enough to tell us."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

We walked into the Great Hall and walked to our tables in a weird silence.

"Cereal!" I dug into my bowl.

Kari laughed. It worked.

"You and your cereal." she said picking up a doughnut.

"Me and cereal? What about you and your doughnuts?" I said smiling.

"Give me a break."

"Hey Lils, Kari. What's up?"

"Hey Sarah. I'm waiting for it to be eight. I still have about twenty minutes. Sit with us."

She sat down and no sooner had she, when Callie came storming in and plopped down next to Kari.

"Uh oh. What did your lovable dorm mates do this time?" Kari said cautiously.

"Stupid bitches had the NERVE to tell me that you guys were below me! They rambled on last night til about eleven while I was trying to sleep about how pathetic you were and that they were glad that _Voldemort _killed off your family! They knew I was awake too!" Callie finished in a huff, and by the time she was done my hand was clenched around my wand and I was ready to blast some Slytherin third year girls.

"Hey Lily, Kari, why is Remus so…pouty, this morning…whoa what happened?" Liz came up.

"Stupid Slytherins being dumb asses!" Callie said through clenched teeth.

"Guys, calm down, deep breaths. We'll get them back once Lily comes back." Sarah, the peacemaker, said firmly.

"Yeah, when I come back. Sounds good to me. Anyways, what did you say Liz?" I said, taking in a deep breath.

"What's up with Remus this morning, He isn't happy at all, and he won't tell me what's wrong."

"Well we don't know either." Kari snapped, grabbing another doughnut and stuffing it in her mouth.

"Sorry, I think I'm going to go sit at my table where I'm welcome. Seems all the Gryffindors are bitchy today." Liz stood up and walked over to her table. I followed her with my eyes and saw that Jason and Michael were there talking. Michael felt my look and turned to face me. He smiled and waved, and I smiled and waved back.

"What happened with Remus you two?" Sarah asked calmly, picking up some toast and a goblet of pumpkin juice.

"I wish I could taste pumpkin with out breaking out into hives." Kari said, looking at the goblet Sarah held wistfully.

"Don't change the subject." Callie said, grabbing some bacon.

"Nothing that we can talk about." I said hastily.

"Alright, but you will tell us if it's serious right?" Sarah asked, concern in her voice.

"Yeah." I sighed, looking down at the table towards Remus. He was poking at his food with his fork unenthusiastically. "So anyways, you guys will look after Kari while I'm gone, I mean who knows what trouble she'll get into without me!"

"You're always getting into trouble right beside me!"

"Well yeah, but without me, you might do something incredibly stupid!"

"Like sneaking into the boys dorms, taking baby pictures and putting them in the common rooms for the house to see?" 

"That was you!?" came a startled voice from behind me. 

Whipping around, Potter and Black were staring at us incredulously.

"I couldn't let you get away with that god awful prank you pulled on me! Stupid gits." Karina said, glaring at them.

"How did you even know that I had those?" Potter asked, sitting down next to me, to my great distaste I inform you.

"Don't talk about it so loudly next time it happens. 'Sirius, mom sent some awful pictures of me, where should I put them so Remus and Peter don't see them?' 'How about in your bedside table drawer?' 'That's so simple it might work!'" I said, repeating the conversation we had heard last year.

"Anyways, what did you want?" Kari said coldly, as Black sat next to her and grabbed a doughnut of the platter.

"We wanted to know if you knew why Remus was so touchy this morning?"

"Well Black, he is your friend, why don't you know?" Kari said, grabbing the doughnut out of his hand a putting it in her mouth.

"Well, last time we checked he was your friend too and that's the last time we saw him, walking down to breakfast with you. And why did you take my doughnut?" he looked at her reproachfully.

"First, the doughnuts on that platter are mine. Made especially for me by the house elves. Second, _Lupin _doesn't concern us anymore." 

"What happened with you guys?" Potter asked, taking a piece of sausage.

"Yeah, and why are these doughnuts made specially for you?"

"If you need to know, get it out of Lupin, it doesn't matter to us." I said, pouring another bowl of cereal.

"These doughnuts are mine because they're mine. Unspoken rule down at this end of the table."

"Fine, we'll leave then. I can take a hint." Black said sarcastically.

Potter and Black got up and went back down to their end of the table, leaving us to finish breakfast in peace.

"Well I guess I should go." I stood up brushing the crumbs that somehow managed to get on me.

Kari stood up next to me and pulled me into a tight hug. 

"You'll be alright won't you?" she asked me in a whisper.

"I hope so." I whispered back.

Sarah flung herself at me and I returned her hug, in a less enthusiastic way mind you.

"Owl us ASAP!"

"I will." I promised.

"Bye Lils. You'll be alright. Be thinking of a revenge plan while you're gone alright?" Callie said, smirking.

"Oh yeah, you know it." 

We hugged briefly and I walked to the Ravenclaw table.

"Lily, where are you going?" Michael asked, looking at me oddly, "We have class soon."

"I'm not going to be here for a while. Family emergency. I'll tell you about it when I can, I just can't talk about it now." I said, my throat getting tight just thinking about having to face my family.

He pulled me into a tight hug and kissed the top of my head.

"Do you want me to walk with you?"

"No, I'll be fine. You need to go to class." I said firmly, knowing full well he just wanted to skip Herbology.

"Aww come on Lil," he said teasingly. 

I had to force a smile and shook my head.

"I have to say bye to Liz. She's a little mad at me at the moment."

"Ok, good luck."

I nodded and walked down to where Liz was sitting with a girl I recognized as Alice Prewett.

"Liz…" I started tentatively.

"What?" she snapped. 

I flinched, and she turned around.

"God, Lily, I'm so sorry, mood swings. Bad time for me. I think I'm going to see if Madame Pomfrey has something for me to take or else I might just sleep all day." Liz grinned sheepishly.

"Its alright, I just wanted to say bye. I'm leaving."

"Bye Lils." she hugged me something fierce and pulled away all teary eyed.

My smile came a little easier this time.

"You definitely want to go see Pomfrey. You're terrible."

"I will." she sniffed.

"Bye Liz."

"Bye Lily."

With that I walked out of the Great Hall. I noticed as I passed by the Slytherin table, they all started sniggering, but I ignored it and made my way to Dumbledore's office.

I walked up to the stone gargoyle and it seemed almost automatic when I said the password (ice mice), climbed up to revolving stairs, and walked into his office.

"Hello Ms. Evans." Dumbledore said kindly.

"Good Morning Professor." I said dully.

"No luggage?"

"No, I have things at home."

"Surely Ms. Evans. Have you ever traveled by Floo powder?"

"Yes sir."

"Well, I have had your house connected for today. Please owl me when you wish to return and I will tell you the time." 

"Alright sir."

"Here, " he held out a container with some glittering sand in it.

I grabbed a handful and threw it into the fireplace, and as I walked in, I could have sworn I heard Dumbledore say, "Good luck Lily."

"15 ROSSMORE LANE!" I yelled clearly into the fire.

Some five minutes later I'm stumbling out of my fireplace at home.

"Mum! Daddy? 'Tunia?" I called to the quiet house.

"Lily? Is that you?"

"Daddy!" I squealed and rushed into his arms.

"Lily Flower, when and how did you get here?"

"I just Flooed in."

"Flooed?"

"By fire, its magic Daddy."

"Of course sweetie."

"Jim? Was that Lily?" a snuffly voice from the hall said.

"Mummy?" I disentangled myself from Daddy and looked to the hall. My mother was standing there, all in black, eyes red rimmed and nose pink.

"Oh Lily!" she hurried towards me and smothered me in an embrace.

I quickly hugged her and I felt tears stinging my eyes.

"Mum, I should get dressed, what time is the service?"

She sniffed. "The service starts at nine."

"I have to take a shower. I have forty five minutes."

"Okay Lily Flower."

I once again disentangled myself from a parent and headed up the stairs to my room. On my way, though, I met an unpleasant surprise.

"So our precious Lily Flower is back?" Petunia mocked.

"Shove it Pet, I'm not in the mood."

"Sure, _freak_." she hissed as I passed by. For the second time that day I flinched.

I walked down the hall and into my room. My solace. The one place I'm not criticized. Just my room. Nowhere else. Even in the place I now call home, Hogwarts, I'm looked at and judged. My own sister thinks lowly of me. No, my room is my place of comfort. 

It screams my name when you walk in. The walls are a teal color with pictures of me and Kari spread all over. Some posters are up, not many, ones of movies I love, like the "Wizard of Oz", and things like that. Kari helped me decorate it. It's wonderful. There's my double bed and a desk and a bookshelf, filled to the brim with every kind of book and magazine imaginable. The bathroom is attached to my room by a door, and on the other side of the bathroom is another door connected to Petunia's room.

I went into my closet, grabbed a long black dress, some black stockings, and some black shoes. Going into the bathroom, I hear Petunia on the phone with a friend of hers, probably Yvonne, talking about going to the movies on Friday. I turned on the shower all the way to hot, and waiting for it to get there, I look around the bathroom thinking all the while of why this had to happen to them. The question has been on my mind since I read the letter yesterday, and the only words of comfort I have are those that Professor Dumbledore gave me.

__

"No one really knows what compels the minds of evil. It could be ambition, or revenge, we may never know." 

Evil. That's definitely the word I would use to describe Voldemort. None of that Dark Lord crap.

Shaking my head, I stepped into the shower, and after the initial shock of the hot water, I let it pour down my clammy body.

~Thirty minutes later…~

"Freak, hurry up, I have to get ready too!" Petunia screeched, and banged on the door to the bathroom.

I sighed and unlocked the door to her room, and went out the door to mine.

Looking around my room, I could see someone taking it as a 'normal' person's room. Nothing in it indicated that I was a witch. I guess in a way that's a good thing. In another way though, it's bad. If someone decided that they liked me because of my room, (I don't know who would) they wouldn't know the real me. They would know the me I used to be. When we put pictures up, we had the choice of putting up moving ones from Hogwarts, but something made me say no.

I sat on my bed, and turned the radio on. A talk show. I should have known. It's a Monday morning and people are going to work. 

Lying back against my many pillows, I looked at the ceiling and thought of the summer, when this was all I did at night. Lay and look at my ceiling. Mum always tried to get me to sleep by sending me to bed, but I couldn't, so I ended up staring at the ceiling.

"Good Morning, and what a lovely morning it is too! The sun is shining, and the weather is just right! All you people heading into work, open your windows and let the breeze in, walk across the street to the little bakery, just don't waste this beautiful day!"

I shut off the radio. It seems like the weather was just mocking me, my family. Today is not a lovely day. It's not even a good day. My family is grieving, a little girl is being buried years to early, and an evil wizard is on the loose.

"Lily! Petunia! We're leaving in five minutes! Hurry up!" my dad yelled up the stairs.

I looked over at the clock and saw it was eight forty-five. I rolled off my bed, smoothed the wrinkles out of my dress, and walked downstairs.

"Oh good, you're ready Lily. Go out to the car with your mother while I get Pet."

"Yes Daddy."

I went out to our car and saw mum sitting in the front seat, wringing her hands. I sat in the back seat waiting to leave. Waiting to get it over with.


	15. Adopted!

I have had at least two reviews about when I should put in more Lily and James stuff. Just wait! I have a plan, it will get there, but things have to be made clear! I'm working with building my characters. If you want to know what I'm going to do, ask, and I might tell you! I know I'm spending too much time in the beginning of third year, but I'm going to get past the first month! In this chapter! I'm moving on.

I AM SO SORRY THIS IS TAKING SO LONG! My computer got a virus, and was gone for about a week and a half! It was horrible! But I'm back now, and hopefully it won't take me long!

****

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the wonderful, talented J.K. Rowling does!

Karina

__

"…She didn't know how to describe it. It was the single most incredible experience of her life. Her first kiss. The one kiss you are sure to remember for the rest of your life, and she had it with the one person she had always wanted…"

'Too bad things like this don't really happen like that.'

I looked at my watch. It was three thirty in the morning. Saturday morning to be exact.

__

Tap, tap

I quietly went to the window and opened it. It was Lily's owl, Dmitri.

"Thanks Dmitri. Go on up to the Owlery to rest." I got a hoot of thanks and he flew off.

I quietly went to my bed and sat down. Glancing at the other beds, to make sure Gina and Denise were asleep, I pried open the letter.

__

Kari,

Sorry it's taking me so long to get back! Mum wants me to stay longer; she's so scared about losing me. I finally told her about Voldemort last night, and now she is almost refusing to let me come back! I can't believe this! I should have kept my mouth shut! Why do I do things like that? ARGH! If I don't get out of this house I'm going to scream! Petunia is driving me insane! If she calls me a freak one more time…anyways, moving on.

Thanks for sending my books and assignments! I'd be even more behind without you! Two weeks is way too long to miss school!

How have you been? Still ignoring Lupin? I'm guessing you are cause I still am! Why can't he just tell us!? It's so frustrating! Is Liz mad at us for ignoring him? I sure hope not cause she doesn't understand the 'situation'.

Moving on from that dreadful subject, are you and Jason doing alright? I bet you are. He really likes you Kari! I can tell. Is Michael mad at me? UGH! I hate being cut off from you guys! At least I have Dmitri to get me letters!

Have the Marauders been pranking you? I would think they'd be decent enough not too, but with them who knows! Stupid Marauders! A weeks worth of detention! Why were they in McGonagall's office in the first place? I'm surprised they weren't suspended! Would have served them right!

Dad's calling! You know, he is dead set against me going back to school! Mum is leaning towards letting me go back but he keeps saying no! I guess I should remind them for the umpteenth time that Hogwarts is the safest place for me right now! I hope they listen! Wish me luck!

Hugs and Bundles of Love,

Lily

I frowned deeply.

'Keep Lily from Hogwarts? She's the best witch in the year and her parents know that!'

Getting up, I went to the window seat to look at the grounds. The moon was in its crescent form, and its low pale glow was illuminating the grounds.

This had been my place every night since Lily left. I was still pissed at Lupin, so I avoided the common room at all times. He tried to talk to me during class, I flicked him off. He has no right to talk to me.

I got up from the window seat and decided to write Lily back. She needs someone besides her insane family to talk to right now.

__

Lils,

Who switched your parents with mine? What are they thinking? You can't just not come back to Hogwarts! Write to Dumbledore! He'll help you talk some sense into your mum and dad. Voldemort is more likely to attack a muggle house than Hogwarts so you'd be a lot safer here. Did you explain that to them? The Daily Prophet _says that every day. Maybe I should send you a copy to show your parents?_

You're thanking me for sending assignments? I always knew you had a few loose screws! The professors are beginning to worry about you catching up, but I told them if anyone could, you could. They believed me. But there only so much the books can teach you, and we know some new spells. ARGH! Your parents are so frustrating!

Life is weird here. Without you, ya know. I mean, in a lot of classes I sit by myself, and in others sit with the girls and Jason and Michael. By the way, Michael says hi and that he misses you. I haven't told Michael about your parents yet, but he knows why you're gone. Almost the whole student body does.

Lupin has been trying to talk to me, but I end up giving him the bird and he stops. Then, he tries again during the next class. I really want to strangle him right now. Erg! Liz isn't mad at us, but she does want to know why. I told her to ask Lupin, but she says he won't tell her. I think that's going to cause problems. He's her boyfriend and he hasn't told her. I understand him not telling us on some level, but his own girlfriend? Drama, drama, drama. It really sucks.

Pranks? On me? They know better by now. Plus, I think Lupin is stopping them. I don't need him to protect me.

I think the Marauders were trying to transfigure all the furniture in her room as a prank, but they got caught. The detentions keep Remus from the common room until late, so I've had it for a little while each night. Then he comes back and I sit in our room till morning. Speaking of morning, it's four in the morning. It's finally Saturday! No classes, they're so boring without you, even though you do pay attention.

Go knock some sense into your parents! Make them listen to you! Try and be back by tomorrow! I know for fact you don't want to miss another week of school!

Love and Hugs!

Kari

I rolled up the letter and set it on my bedside table.

'Breakfast doesn't start till six and I have nothing to do for two hours.'

I picked up my book and tried to get back into it, but it was useless. I was distracted, so I did what was natural. I grabbed my radio and headed out, to the quidditch pitch.

The common room was empty, to my relief. No Remus or Marauders to ruin my morning.

As quietly as possible I made my way through the hallways. No one was awake, the corridors were empty. It was eerie. No ghosts or anything.

I snuck out of the Entrance Hall and ran across the dark grounds. Even Hagrid's hut was empty and silent.

In the pitch, I set the radio down on the stands, and turned it on to the muggle rock station I had found.

_You know it's alright_

I said it's alright

You know it's all in my heart

You'll be my only, my one and only

Is that the way it should start?

"Led Zeppelin! I approve highly." I said grinning, "As Lily would say, 'you and your music'"

Standing in the grass on the pitch, I began to stretch my legs and arms.

__

I told your momma I'd get you home

But I didn't tell her I had no car

I saw a lion he was standing alone

With a tadpole in a jar

I started swaying with the music. Slowly at first, but then, I realized, no one was up. I got lost in the music, in the rhythm. Banging my head, holding up my arms, and singing along.

__

Dancing days are here again

As the summer evening grows

You are my flower, you are my power

You are my woman who knows

The song finished, and felt exhilarated. Breathing in deeply, I caught the scent of autumn leaves and water.

I took off at a jog around the field. I have energy and no Lily! I already had too much for my friends to handle. I was singing with the music (_Dream On _by Aerosmith) and coming to a peace of mind. Something I hadn't done in a while.

Finishing up my last lap, I picked up my radio and looked at my watch. Five thirty. Perfect. Time to take my shower and get to breakfast first.

I jogged all the way up to Gryffindor tower, humming to Aerosmith, when I literally ran into the four people I would rather not see. Yup, you guessed it, the Marauders.

"What are you doing out Karr?"

"None of your business Potter, now excuse me, I'm sweaty and would like to take a shower." I pushed past them and went into the common room.

It was empty, but I wasn't having breakfast alone.

Thirty minutes later, fully showered and dressed, I went to breakfast.

Like I expected, the Marauders were there. Potter and Black were both sporting identical grins, the ones usually reserved for when they pulled a prank.

I waved to Professor Dumbledore like usual, and almost groaning, I sat in my seat, expecting something to happen to me.

Nothing happened.

Looking around curiously, I saw them looking expectantly at the Slytherin table.

Letting out and exasperated sigh, I turned back to my doughnuts and grape juice.

I ate in silence for about an hour till the Slytherins started coming in. They were huffing and puffing and looking really angry.

They sat down and started eating, when a female shriek pierced the Great Hall.

"WHAT IS THIS!?"

Laughter erupted from the other end of the table. Fabian and Gideon Prewett, and Frank Longbottom had joined the Marauders.

Gagging sounds were coming from the Slytherins and some were running out with their hands covering their mouths.

"WHATS WRONG WITH OUR FOOD!" Bellatrix screeched, spitting out her food, which I noticed, wasn't food. It was slugs. Slimy, fat slugs.

"POTTER! BLACK!" Snape started yelling, turning a deep red, and stomping over to our table.

"Yes Snivelly?" Black said sniggering.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO OUR FOOD?"

"Language, language Snivellus." Potter taunted him.

Bellatrix was recovering from her nausea, and she joined Snape in glowering at the Marauders. Her little gang followed, and, sneaking around to me, I saw Callie.

"Callie, why are all of the Slytherins here so early?" I whispered, so no one else would hear.

"We were woken up to the portraits screaming insults about Slytherin. It would have been funny if it wasn't so damn early in the morning. They all decided to come eat breakfast, so I waited till they were all gone and I followed. I had a feeling the Marauders were up to something."

I glanced down at them, "Aren't they always up to something?"

"Fair point." she picked up some bacon.

We ate while watching the Slytherins get detention for 'disturbing the peace' and the Marauders get off with nothing, there being no proof to convict them.

"I'm have to go send an owl, wanna come?" I asked, after my last sip of juice.

"Sure, I don't have anything else to do."

We walked up to the Owlery, laughing about some joke Liz said the other day, when a rough hand grabbed my arm and pulled me around.

"Go away Avery." I said coldly.

"Stay away from my sister Mudblood."

"I'm not your sister! And what I do is my own business." Callie hissed, trying to tug her arm away.

"If it involves a Mudblood, let alone two, then it does concern us. You are one of the younger generation for our leader, he needs you, now come with us and forget this foolishness."

"Let's get some things straight right now. I do not want to be a Death Eater. I am not your sister. I think you all are scumbags." Callie said these things slowly for emphasis.

Laughter was heard coming towards us, Avery tightened his grip and hissed into my ear, "You'll pay for this Mudblood. You and your friend." and he was gone.

"Callie, he's out of his bloody mind."

Callie nodded her head earnestly.

Voices were floating up towards us, the people that had been laughing and made Avery leave.

"As funny as that was guys, you aren't helping my situation with them."

It was the Marauders.

Callie motioned to a tapestry, and I followed her behind it. There was a small niche behind it, and we hid there.

"Will you ever tell us what happened between you and them?"

"I guess so Peter. Well, we were walking down to breakfast, and we were talking about sleep, and the subject on why I'm an insomniac popped up, and I wouldn't tell them, so they got mad, and there you go."

"They don't know?" Potter asked surprised.

"I think they know, but they want me to tell them. I want them to know, but then again, I don't want them to know."

"I think I understand mate. You don't want them to think lowly, or differently about you."

"Wow Sirius. That was deep."

"Thanks Jamesie."

"Don't call me that Siri."

"Guys, don't start."

"Sure Pete."

"Remus…"

"Sorry Peter, you walked right into that one."

"Aww Remmy just likes us having nicknames."

"Guys, I'm trying to think, please keep it down."

"Sure Remmy." Black whispered.

They were gone. They had walked past us and were headed towards some unknown location.

We stepped out from the tapestry and finished walking to the Owlery in silence.

"Dmitri, take this to Lily."

The tawny owl hooted and flew off.

Callie looked a me, then, as if she decided something, said cautiously, "Are you ever going to tell us about the fight?"

I turned around and looked out the window.

Sure I was pissed at Lupin, but could I really tell my friends what me and Lily believe. That he's a werewolf. He's still my friend, and I don't even know if it's true. I don't think they could handle it either. Liz, Callie, and Sarah. They grew up in the wizarding world, where werewolves are thought lowly of, and even have hate crimes against them. Plus, it wasn't my secret to tell.

"He doesn't trust us." I said slowly, thinking carefully over my words.

"What makes you think that?" Callie sounded scandalized.

"Its not my place to tell." I said, without looking at her. It's awful not being able to tell her.

"Well, if you need me, I'm here. Lily isn't your only friend," she sounded angry, and a slam of the door told me she was.

Looking out on the grounds, I said to no one, "I'm only thirteen! Why is my life so dramatic!?"

"You're going through the best and worst years of your life. There has to be drama to keep it that way."

"Professor! I didn't know you were here." I turned around, my face flushing with embarrassment, not looking directly at Dumbledore, more like his feet.

"Obviously, or you would not have said that aloud." he smiled a little and his blues eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Actually, I probably would have, but I would have asked you instead of the grounds." I grinned.

"I have no doubt. Professor Hasta has told me all about your ability to voice your opinions and concerns."

I felt my face burn with embarrassment. Hasta was telling Dumbledore about me? That was really not her business to be telling him.

"Well, I have very strong views about the things she says, and since I sit in the back of the classroom, I have to speak loudly." I lied.

That was complete and total bullshit. I say my thoughts out loud because they are against Gryffindor and they are utterly biased, her being head of Slytherin house.

"I have no doubt Ms. Karr. The reason I was looking for you was not to discuss dramatic teenage lives, but Ms. Evans."

"Professor, her parents are scared for her safety. That's why they won't let her come back. They're scared of Voldemort."

"Thank you Ms. Karr, now I believe I may be able to help. She has been gone two weeks, has she not? I will have to owl her parents."

"Thank you Professor." I smiled hopefully.

Lily should be back soon. Now I have to patch things up with Callie.

It was absolutely impossible to find a person in Hogwarts. Especially if you wanted to find them. The only place I haven't looked to find Callie was her dorm. In the Slytherin dungeon.

Feeling defeated, I walked into the Great Hall for lunch. A big blur of brown attacked me, and after a little disorientation, I realized it was Callie, begging for me to accept her apology.

"Oh, I dunno, maybe I should make you suffer…" I said playfully, rubbing my chin.

"Or you could stop being stubborn and accept."

"That way is easier. I accept your humble apology and ask you to accept mine."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Cause I can't tell you."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Maybe not to you, but it makes sense to me."

"ARGH! You're so confusing! Let's just go eat."

Callie dragged my hand and pulled me to the Ravenclaw table, where we decided to eat today. Jason pulled me down next to him and gave me a kiss. I smiled and looked to Michael.

"Lily should be back by tomorrow. Hopefully. Dumbledore's owling her."

"Good, I'm sick of you two making kissy faces without me and Lily to compete."

"We do not make kissy faces." Jason argued.

"Yes you do. 'Kari, you look so cute today.' 'Not as cute as you Jason.' Its rather sickening." Liz cut in, giggling.

"Well you and Lupin are just like that! Only sometimes its worse! Talk about sickening." I stuck my tongue out.

"Please shush. You know how I hate arguments." Sarah said, putting an end to our conversation.

"Hey, can I join you guys?"

"Sure Alice, we all know you have no friends." Sarah said, jokingly.

"Don't make me start with you Sarah. I have so much blackmail on you its amazing."

"Is that a threat?"

"No, it's a promise!"

"I see how it is." Sarah faked a sniff, and then burst out laughing.

"Oh little sister of ours!" a male voice cut into Sarah's laughing.

"Go away Fabian." Alice voiced had a hint of annoyance in it.

"But sister dear! We only wish to converse with your highness Ravenclaw!"

"Gideon and Fabian Prewett, if you don't go away, I'll hex you to Tuesday!"

"Sarah, our dear cousin and friend!"

"Shut your bloody mouth and go away!"

I couldn't help it; I burst into peals of laughter.

"And who might this be? A Gryffindor? At the Ravenclaw table?" Gideon looked closer, "What year are you in?"

"I'm laugh in third laugh year."

"Name?" Fabian asked, looking interested.

"Karina Karr." my laughter was beginning to subside.

"And you're friends with our dear Ravenclaw sister Alice?"

"Fabian and Gideon Prewett's sister, why yes, you could say we're friends."

"Are you implying something?" Gideon asked, crossing his arms and sitting on one side of me.

"You know us?" Fabian sat on my other side.

"Alice doesn't like pranks before classes."

"Ohh…"

"You didn't answer my question."

"I'm not implying anything."

"Gideon, lets adopt her."

"WHAT!" Gideon said loudly, and I screeched.

"Yeah, she's clever. We should teach her in our ways instead of her bookworm-ish qualities."

Gideon sat there and pondered it while Alice and Sarah went into a tirade.

"You can't do that!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN ADOPT!"

"We don't need any more corrupted students running around this school."

"You'll never get Kari away from books."

Fabian just grinned and Gideon looked up.

"She's adopted."

"Without my consent?" I butt in, trying to hide my smile.

"And mine. Doesn't the boyfriend count for anything in this?" Jason added in frowning.

"Aww Jason, you know you count."

"We weren't implying anything like that! Don't worry." Fabian said, a little offended.

"What about Lily?"

"Lily Evans?" Gideon asked.

"Yeah. She's Karina's best friend, and they hang out all the time, except for these past two weeks…" Liz added in, smirking.

"We'll adopt her too." Fabian said smiling.

"Obviously Gideon is the brains of the duo." I whispered to Alice, and she laughed.

"Fabian's just out for a good time." Alice whispered back, looking pointedly at her brother.

"Its official now. We've adopted you." Gideon smiled, and draped his arm over my shoulders.

"Yup, you're stuck with us now." Fabian put his arm over my shoulders too, and I was trying hard not to laugh.

"Fabian, Gideon, she has a boyfriend." Alice frowned.

"We know. We've got to get back to Gryffindor table anyways, Frank is probably waiting for us." Gideon stood up.

"Bye Little K." Fabian grinned and followed his brother.

"Little K?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"His bad attempt at nicknames." Alice rolled her eyes.

"Really bad. Remember when I was quid?" Sarah started laughing again.

"YES! That was hilarious!"

"For you maybe! Your just lil sis!"

"Erg! I hate that name."

"What do you think of them Kari?" Jason asked, scooting back next to me. He put his arm around my waist protectively.

"Well, they're…interesting. I guess I'll just have to wait and see."

"Yeah, I guess so…"

"Wait a second, are you…_jealous?_"

"Me? Jealous of them? No!"

"Jason you're a bad liar. Calm down. You've for nothing to worry about. They'll probably forget about me by the next quidditch practice."

He offered me a small smile, and I smiled widely back.


	16. It's Good to be Home

A/N: I'm back after all this long while! I'm on summer break now and that could either be good or bad. It could be bad because of vacations. It could be good cause of more time. We'll just have to see.

Thanks to all my reviewers, you make this worthwhile!

Disclaimer: The wonderful, talented J.K. Rowling owns all you recognize.

Lily

…Go knock some sense into your parents! Make them listen to you! Try and be back by tomorrow! I know for fact you don't want to miss another week of school!

Love and Hugs!

Kari

"If only it were that easy."

"What are you mumbling about freak?" Petunia, my older sister, hissed at me.

"Nothing at all Pet, nothing at all."

Sighing, I folded the letter from Kari that I just got, and stood up to get a sandwich. Turkey. I don't like turkey all that much. There's a much bigger selection at Hogwarts.

"Lily! Would you come here please." my father called from upstairs.

"Yes Daddy."

I slowly got up and made my way up to their room. Mum hasn't come out of there since the funeral. She's taking Aunt Daisy's death really hard. She barely eats anymore.

I went up to their room and knocked lightly.

"Come in." my mother's sniffling voice answers.

Pushing the door open, I see my mom sitting at the edge of her bed, grasping a letter, and my dad pacing the floor. I got a bad feeling.

"Mum, Daddy, what's wrong?"

Daddy stopped pacing to look at me.

"Lily, we got a letter from your Headmaster today."

YES! Maybe he'll convince them to let me go back.

"He's concerned about all the classes your missing and whether you'll be able to catch up or not." he paused to look at me, "Lily, how behind are you?"

"Well…"

"Lily Flower, you can tell me the truth."

"Daddy, I've missed a few spells, and since I can't do magic outside of school, I don't know how to perform them. Kari sent my books and assignments, but in the wizarding world there is only so much books can teach."

I looked from my mom to dad, trying to figure out who was going to speak first. It was my mom.

"Lily, do you want to go back? Even with this evil wizard?"

Her voice was raspy, and almost pleading me not to go back.

"Mummy, I love you so much, but Hogwarts is where I belong."

I could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, just like they were in mine.

"Magic is my future Mum, Daddy, I have to go back."

Mum looked away, I knew she was crying, but my Dad just looked at me.

"Daddy, please understand, for me."

He looked at me, then to the letter clutched in Mum's hand, then to a small purple bag on their bedside table.

"Is this really what you want?" he asked in a hollow sort of voice.

"Yes Daddy." I barely whispered.

"You can go back," he picked up the purple bag and handed it to me, "The Headmaster told me to give this to you."

I took the bag and opened it. Floo powder. I should have known.

"Bye Mum, I'll owl you when I get back." I hugged her tightly and kissed her cheek, "Dad, thank you." I hugged him, and he kissed my forehead.

I ran downstairs, grateful to get away from the mourning. I know it's terrible, but I'm ready to move on. My books were sitting in the living room, so I picked them up, put them in a bag, and was about to throw the Floo in before I remembered Petunia.

"Bye Pet! See you Christmas holidays!" I screamed, hoping for a reply.

"Hopefully not, freak!" she shrieked back.

Any reply but that one.

I threw the powder in and stepped into the fire.

"PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE'S OFFICE!" I screamed.

I was whirled and tossed back to his office.

"Welcome back Ms. Evans."

"Thank you Professor." I nodded, "and…thank you."

"You're welcome, Lily. Lunch is still going on if you would like to join your friends."

"Thank you professor, I believe I will."

I left the Headmaster's office and made my solitary way down to the Great Hall.

There weren't a lot of people left when I walked in, just a few people at the Slytherin table, and a slightly big group at the Ravenclaw table.

"LILY!"

I looked towards the Ravenclaw table and Karina was running towards me.

"KARI!" I smiled, the biggest smile I'd put on in two weeks. She squeezed me tightly and I laughed.

"I can't breathe!" I said, in an exaggerated voice.

"Shut up, I know you can! Come sit with us and eat. There isn't a lot left, we were joined by three very hungry males who couldn't find enough to eat at the Gryffindor table."

Warily, I walked with her to the table, and to my surprise, it wasn't the Marauders who were sitting with them, but Gideon and Fabian Prewett and Frank Longbottom.

"This is a new development. I really need to catch up." I said cheerfully and grabbed a roast beef sandwich from the platter.

"Lily, darling, we have wonderful news for you." Fabian said, acting like an old noble lady.

"Lily, watch it, they're hyped up on sugar…" Alice Prewett warned me.

"Thanks Alice. What news would this be?"

"We've adopted you!" Fabian smiled and pulled me into a bear hug.

"What?" I choked on my own breath.

"Fabian met Kari…" Liz started to explain.

"Little K." Fabian cut in.

"Like I said, Fabian met _Kari _this morning and decided she was amusing, so he came up with this wonderful idea to adopt her."

"How do I come in then?"

"Well, Liz didn't think it would be fair to leave you out, so she asked what about you, and then it was decided, you were adopted too." Callie finished, smirking at Liz, who blushed.

"Not after Alice and Sarah had a bloody fit about it though." Kari added in smiling, "The only problem I have, is I will not be called Little K."

"I agree. Fabian, you think up NO more nicknames." Gideon poked his brother, causing him to spill pumpkin juice right on Kari.

"Don't let it touch me!" she shrieked, jumping up.

She was deadly allergic to pumpkins of any form.

I grabbed a napkin and quickly wiped up as much as possible.

"What's wrong?" Frank looked at us curiously, surprised at Kari's outburst.

"I'm alarmingly allergic to pumpkins." Kari explained, using her wand to get the rest of the juice off her.

"I'll call her Pumpkin now." Fabian announced, grinning insanely.

"Oh goody." Kari said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and taking a sip of tea.

"That one can stay Fabian, it has a nice ring to it." Gideon smiled at Kari… or 'Pumpkin'.

"Doesn't Lily get a nickname?" Liz said, smirking at me.

"Of course, I couldn't let my other other little sister not have a nickname." Fabian said, looking shocked.

"Of course not." Alice muttered, sending a sympathetic look towards me.

"We'll call her…Little Flower." Gideon said, before Fabian could say something.

"I was thinking along the lines of Tulip…"

"No."

"It's settled then, Lily, you are now Little Flower." Frank said, banging his fist on the table.

"Oh how exciting."

"Isn't it though?" Kari giggled, and picked up a sandwich.

"What does Jason think of this Kari?" I asked, not really being serious about it.

"He's jealous to the point where he's short with me."

"What? No way."

"Yeah, he was so protective of her earlier, when they were sitting with us, it was cute to a certain point, and then it got ridiculous." Callie added in rolling her eyes to make the point.

"Oh crap. Now I have to tell Michael. That sounds like fun. They're really paranoid aren't they." I asked to no one in particular.

"Yeah, you're boyfriends need lives."

The voice of the one and only Sirius Black came from behind me, and I knew exactly whose voice would follow.

"Yeah, paranoid little buggers aren't they?" Potter's annoying voice commented, squeaking a little at the end. Ha, puberty.

"What do you want Black?" Kari asked, a little viciously.

"Oh, nothing really, just here to enjoy the pleasure of your company, Karr." he replied smoothly, sitting next to her.

"Don't make me gag."  
And their little banter continued.

Meanwhile, I was in my own argument with Potter.

"What do you mean 'paranoid little buggers'?" I asked, gritting my teeth.

"They're always giving us strange looks, like we're just going to up and kidnap you or something."

"Wouldn't put it past you."

"Ouch Evans, that hurt."

"I hope it did."

And on it went for about fifteen minutes. Gideon, Fabian, and Frank had never been witness to one of our arguments before, so they were watching us back and forth. I've been told our exchanges are really something to see. Even Karina and Black quit their quarrel to watch ours.

"POTTER, WHAT DO YOU WANT! I'LL DO ANYTHING IF YOU'LL JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Really. Well, how about a date, or just a snog?"

"NO YOU ARROGANT PIG!"

"Well then I guess you're stuck with me."

I just groaned and hit my head against the table.

"What do you guys really want?" Sarah asked, intervening before there was blood shed.

"Oh yeah, quidditch practice has been moved up an hour, so we'll be meeting at seven thirty instead of six thirty." Black said to Fabian, Gideon, and Frank.

Now Karina looked murderous.

"THAT'S ALL YOU WANTED?" she screeched, imitating me and banging her head on the table.

"I think you guys should leave, your causing a lot of pain to them." Gideon pointed to Kari and me.

"Alright, see you at seven thirty." Potter waved and winked at me cheekily.

I chucked a roll at him.

Several hours later you'll find me frantically trying to learn a new transfiguration spell.

"I just can't get it!" I exclaimed throwing a book across the common room.

"Lily, if Pettigrew can get it, you can get it." Kari calmly pointed out to me.

"Well he has the transfiguration master Potter helping him." I spat out angrily.

"Lily, I love you to death, but if you're going to be sulky, I'll go up to the dorm and read."

"Well, I'm not going to get any better any time soon, stupid Potter. ERG!"

"I'll leave you to murder Potter in your head in private, when you're done, I'll be in the dorm."

Kari left me sulking on one of the armchairs.

Dinner was going on at the time and most everyone was eating now. Word ad spread that the Marauders had planned a prank for dinner so, naturally, everyone wanted to see what kind of torture the Slytherins were going to go through.

The common room was completely empty, except for me and a cat purring in the armchair closest to the fire. My homework was spread out over two tables, along with the notes Kari took for me. I had been going over the new spells we had been learning ever since I left the Great Hall.

The portrait hole opened then, and streams of people came in the common room, in high spirits over the prank.

"Did you see the looks on their faces?"

"…priceless…"

"…need a camera…"

"…one for the record…"

So on and so forth the conversations went.

After so much though, it gets annoying. So, I gathered my things and went up to the dorm.

"Done sulking yet?" Kari asked from her bed.

"Yes."

"Good, cause I'm starving. Let's go down to dinner." She jumped up after putting a bookmark in her book.

"Alright, the Marauders prank just got finished, so there shouldn't be anyone there."

"Good, I hope there's some food left."

"Me too."

And so we headed our way down to dinner, the whole way I was glad to be home.

AN: OMG sorry it took so long, but I could not for the life of me get this chapter to flow either! SORRY! I hope I can update sooner next time. Reviews might encourage me, so if you would be so kind…


	17. Quidditch and Such

A/N: OMG! So sorry...stupid life! I used tonot have one, then I get one, and I have no time for my lovely fic! So Sorry. I feel bad now...

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns everything you recognize, I own what you don't. Sad isn't it.

James

"James, what are you doing for the holidays?"

I looked up from my broomstick, that I was polishing, to see Sirius plopping down in a chair next to mine.

"Going home. My mum wants me to go to the Ministry events to show me off. Why?"

"My family is being stupid again, I was wondering if anyone would stay at Hogwarts with me."

"Sorry mate, but, Remus is staying. He got a letter this morning. His parents are going to Greece for Ministry work. Pete's going home though, his mum is ill." I reeled of the information proudly.

"Well, I guess it's just me and Remmy then." he said cheerfully.

"Guess so."

Suddenly, Karr burst through the portrait hole.

"LILY! LILY! WAKE UP!"

And she was gone up to the girls dormitories.

About a minute later, Remus came down from our dorm.

"What was all that yelling about?"

"Karr came through here yelling for Evans. She sounded really pleased about something. She was waving a piece of parchment about her head like a lunatic though." I answered, glancing towards the stairs Karr had ran up.

"So Remus, it's just you and me staying at Hogwarts for holidays then?"

Remus looked up guiltily.

"Sorry Sirius, my brother invited me to stay with him and his wife and son."

Sirius looked hurt for a minute, then brightened up.

"Oh well. I guess I'll live with the dorm all to myself."

Grinning, I took my broom back up to the dorm.

"Hey Pete, you up yet?"

Incoherent mumbling from his bed.

"Come on, its almost lunch time."

"Fine."

With a loud plop, Pete landed on the floor.

Laughing, I went over to help him up.

"Why so tired this morning Pete?"

"Stayed up with Remus till four in the morning. He was helping me with my Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Wow, well, go take a shower and we'll met you in the Great Hall."

He nodded, rubbed his eyes, and headed towards the shower.

I went back to the common room to see Karr and Evans smiling and talking with Gideon, Fabian, and Frank.

"Wow Pumpkin, America? That sounds like a lot of fun." Gideon was saying.

"No fair, we're stuck at home." Fabian lightly pushed Karr.

"Mum wants to have a Christmas party for the family. What a nightmare." Frank shook his head.

"What are you doing Little Flower?" Fabian asked.

"I'm going home. We always have a nice little family Christmas together. Nothing fancy at all."

"Sounds nice." Gideon sighed, thinking about his holiday.

"If you get really bored, you can always floo to America. My sister married a wizard, so we're connected to the network." Karr added in casually.

Gideon and Fabian grinned.

Frank sighed, "My mum would have a cow if I said I was flooing to America to visit a friend, that just so happened to be a girl."

"Sorry Frank, I'll send you a nice gift though."

I made my way back to the guys and informed them on the events of our fellow Gryffindors.

"Karina's going to America to visit her sister. That's good. She's always talking about her sister." Remus smiled.

"I feel sorry for Frank though. A party for relatives. Must suck." Sirius shook his head pityingly.

'Hey guys, I'm ready for lunch."

I looked up to see Peter, a damp and tired looking Peter, but Peter nonetheless.

"Morning Pete. Late night?" Sirius asked, standing up and stretching.

Peter yawned a jaw cracking yawn, "You have no idea. By the way, you talk odd things in your sleep Sirius."

"Do I?"

"Yes." Remus added simply.

"Heh? That's interesting."

"Let's go get lunch. I'm getting really hungry." I interrupted, hearing my stomach grumble.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter shrugged and stood up, following me out of the common room.

"Come on Sirius, you can hit that bludger a lot harder than you're doing! Put your back into it!" the Gryffindor captain, Charles Wood, a seventh year, screamed as the bludger Sirius hit hardly went as far as he wanted it.

"Wood! The wind was blowing into the bludger! You can hardly expect it to go far!" Sirius yelled back.

"Potter! Work with Gideon and Frank! Your not the only Chaser!"

He quickly decided to yell at me.

"Meadows! Are you expecting the Snitch to fly up your sleeve! Look for it!"

Dorcas Meadows, our Seeker, had paused her constant look out for a second, and Wood flipped.

"I thought I saw it! Calm down Charles!"

"Wood is a slave driver! Slytherin hasn't had a good team in years!" Sirius complained two hours later, "I have two essays to finish, I can't be having Quidditch practice for hours a day!"

"The match is on Saturday, that's two days from now, we have to practice!" I argued.

Personally, I agreed with Wood, the more practice the better our chances of beating Slytherin are.

"Mad one you are." Sirius replied, frowning darkly and shaking his head.

"I swear! If Wood makes us practice even a minute after nine tonight, I'll kill him! I have homework! Plus, I'm more physically and mentally exhausted than I've ever been in my entire life!"

"Sirius, mate, calm down. The match is tomorrow, Wood just wants to make sure we're ready for it." I tried to calm down a ranting Sirius, "Anyways, since when did you care about homework?"

"Since McGonagall threatened detention for a month with Filch, that's when!"

"Oh."

"Sirius, we're going to kick Slytherin's ass today. Nothing to it." I said during breakfast the morning of the match.

"Yeah. I know. The Slytherin team hasn't been good since…well, since before we were here. I can imagine the match will end within ten minutes tops." Sirius said casually.

Remus shook his head and buried his face in his hands and Peter nodded enthusiastically.

"You guys better head down to the pitch, I think Wood wants to talk with us." Frank said in passing on his way to the pitch.

"Alright," I picked up my Nimbus 500, "See you guys after the game."

"Bye Remus. Bye Pete." Sirius said and followed me.

As we passed by the Slytherin table boos and hisses followed us out to the entrance hall.

"What a load of sore losers."

Sirius nodded his agreement.

Walking into the locker room, we found Wood looking downcast, and the rest of the team confused.

"What's the matter?" Sirius asked Gideon.

"Dunno. Wood's been like this since we showed up."

Sirius looked at me confused, and I just shrugged my shoulders. Just as confused as the rest of the team, we sat down.

A few minutes passed, then Wood stopped his pacing and faced us.

"Slytherin has been lying to us, to the school," he paused for a second, "You know all the players we thought they had. Well, they don't have them. Their line up is completely different. The only person who is really on their team that we know is the captain Rookwood. Everyone else, I have no idea. We'd been planning on going against who I thought he had, but since those people aren't on the team, I don't know what to expect. We're going to have to work as a team out there, no matter who happens to be on their team."

He stopped and looked at us.  
"Charles, we can do it. We've been working together almost constantly for the past two weeks. Just because the line up is different doesn't mean we won't be able to use some of the maneuvers and plays that you came up with." Dorcas said calmly.

"Yeah, Dorcas is right, I mean, I don't need a name to smack a bludger at someone. It's still going to hurt." Sirius explained.

Fabian nodded his agreement, him being the other Beater.

"Me, James, and Frank can get past any defense you give us. We haven't been practicing for nothing." Gideon stuck up for the Chasers.

"Yeah, and Dorcas can catch the Snitch in ten minutes, in the dark, so I don't think she'll have much of a problem." Fabian added for Dorcas.

Dorcas smiled in appreciation.

"Alright, maybe I am over reacting a smidgen." Charles reluctantly admitted.

"Just a smidge though." Dorcas teased.

For a moment, the team just stood there, contemplating the game. Finally, Charles snapped out of his thoughts and ordered everyone out to the field.

"Talk about a madman." Sirius muttered to James just before walking out to the tumultuous applause.

"NOW WELCOME THE GRYFFINDOR HOUSE TEAM!" the announcer screamed to the audience, " WOOD, POTTER, PREWETT, LONGBOTTOM, PREWETT, BLACK, AND MEADOWS!"

Dorcas' name was almost drowned in the screaming from the majority of the crowd.

"AND NOW, THE NEW, AND HOPEFULLY IMPROVED, SLYTHERIN TEAM! ROOKWOOD, AVERY, BLACK, LESTRANGE, CRABBE, GOYLE, AND KNOTT!"

The cheers from the Slytherin portion of the field was tremendous considering the only supporters were their own house.

Half an hour into the game, and the two teams were tied 50-50 and there was no sign of the snitch.

Gideon had the quaffle and I was right behind him, waiting for the signal from Frank to zoom ahead.

There, a slight nod of the head, and I was off like a rocket, Gideon had passed me the quaffle and I was more than halfway to the hoops by the time the Slytherins realized they were chasing the wrong chaser.

I score to make Gryffindors ahead by ten.

The Slytherins maul Dorcas every time she makes for the Snitch, and it always gets away. I'm starting to get really pissed. It's freezing and most of the us can stay on our brooms.

"Come on Dorcas, kick them in the face if they stop you again!" I scream at her, hoping she will and we can go celebrate.

"GRYFFINDOR IS STILL UP TEN TO SLYTHERIN AT 120-110!"

I pass the quaffle to Frank, and he speeds down the field, hoping to make out lead greater.

WHACK!

"Bloody HELL! Who whacked that bludger!" I yelled to Sirius as he passed by me, to get the bludger that slammed into my back.

"It was Crabbe, the nasty bugger, I'll whack his freaky deaky all the way to Timbuktu!" (A/N: My randomness of the day!)

Suddenly. Dorcas flashed across my eyesight and in an instant, the Snitch was wriggling in her hands.

"WE WON!" Frank yelled across the field.

"AFTER ALL THOSE BLOODY PRACTICES WE BETTER HAVE BLOODY WON!" Fabian screamed, smiling through his ill humor.

"PARTY IN THE COMMON ROOM!" Sirius yelled, making sure all the Gryffindors heard.

A/N: OH MY GOSH! I haven't updated in for freakin ever! I'm so, so, so, so, so, SO sorry! My life has caught up with me, but I will try and update sooner! I feel so terrible! Argh! This last bit was, well horrible, and I am trying my very hardest to get OUT of third year, its beginning to bug me, but I will do it! Stick with me, and this story will get finished. I'm determined! Reviews would help!


	18. Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

A/N: Sorry it's taken me so long to update…wow…way too long. Yeah, while I am in a creative and productive mood ( I cleaned…a lot) I will update with a new chapter. Can't promise how good it will be, but it's better than nothing.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. All the credit goes to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.

Chapter 18- Have A Holly Jolly Christmas

"Finally! No more stupid drama! I'm only 13! I can't take it," Lily cried dramatically after we entered the muggle world from Platform 9 ¾.

I laughed and pushed her, "Come on, we have a long walk to the Leaky Cauldron."

She gave an over exaggerated sigh and pushed her trolley towards London.

"Well come on Karina!"

"I'm coming."

The past month at Hogwarts had been nothing BUT drama. With the quidditch win to Gryffindor, the Slytherins had been even more nasty than usual. Lily and I were getting less insults thrown at us due to the quidditch players, but even though we got to see Potter and Black get insulted in the halls, we did not feel any better.

Then, the Hogsmeade visit came. What a disaster! Michael and Jason hardly talked to us at all.

Flashback

"So Michael, what are you doing for the holidays?" Lily asked her boyfriend, taking a sip of her butterbeer.

"Nothing."

"Are you going home?"

"Yeah."

Lily eyed him for a while, worried.

"Michael, what's wrong?"

He didn't answer.

I looked at Jason, "Do you know what's wrong with Michael?"

"The same thing that's wrong with me."

"What?"

Michael and Jason just looked at each other for a second.

Then Jason answered, "The Prewett brothers."

I just looked at him, while Lily glared at Michael.

"WHAT! Are you CRAZY!"

Then I got mad, we had not done anything.

"We are just friends. Let me spell that for you f-r-i-e-n-d-s!"

"Sure," Michael answered.

They walked out, not even looking back.

Lily and I just looked at each other for a few minutes. Seething, we left the Three Broomsticks, intent on getting some chocolate from Honeydukes and finding our friends. Sarah was especially nice to have around when you felt bad. Being a Hufflepuff, she was naturally sweet. We had no such luck finding our friends, but as soon as we reached Honeydukes, the Marauders came out.

"Evans? Where's your boyfriend?" Potter asked sneering.

Lily did her best to ignore him. Her very best, but when her temper gets up, she will not go back down. She might have not said something if it was anyone other than Potter, but no, it had to be Potter.

"Sod. Off. Potter."

She was trying not to blow up.

"Karr, same question. Where's Mr. Charming?" Black decided to join in.

Bad idea.

I started clenching and unclenching my fists. Most people take that as a hint not to say anything, but no. Not Potter and Black. For being the two brightest boys in our year, they sure are stupid.

"Did you break up?"

"IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS ANYWAYS! GO ABOUT YOUR OWN WAY AND LEAVE US ALONE YOU STUPID PRICKS!" I screamed…loud.

"Kari, Lils, come one, lets go back to the castle. We have chocolate, come on." Sarah had found us, and her Liz and Callie were leading us away from the Marauders.

End Flashback

"Finally, we're here. I never thought we'd make it," Lily groaned.

The Leaky Cauldron loomed ahead of us, and slowly, we entered with our trunks in tow. Entering the Leaky Cauldron is one of the few experiences that truly surprises me every time. There is always some type of magical person sitting there, not always a wizard.

"Hello ladies. How may I help you this chilly afternoon? How about a nice cup of tea?" Tom, the innkeeper, asked us, grinning his toothless grin.

"Two shots of firewhiskey will do just fine," Lily replied cheekily.

"If only you were older."

"Well darn Tom. Anyways, I just need some floo powder and I'm off. Lily, are your parents picking you up here?" I asked, making sure Lily would not be left for too long.

"My dad is meeting me at the record shop down the way soon. Actually," she glanced at her watch, "he should be there now. Have a good holiday. Happy Christmas. I'll try and floo that way around New Year's."

Lily and I quickly hugged that best friend hug. Smiling, she left through the swinging door and down muggle London to her waiting father. I, on the other hand, set off towards the fireplace. I grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it in the fire, and stepped in.

"5013 Seabreeze Way!" I nervously yelled into the fireplace.

The swirling, dizzy feeling was taking over me as I was swept past many fireplaces. One hundred, one fifty, two hundred. Then, I was slowing down and thrown into a room.

It was bright and cheerful, a light blue-green, with a huge window.

"Sam? Are you here?" I called into the seemingly empty house.

Worried, and alone, I wandered through the hall, wondering if I was in some strangers house, or if this was really the place I was supposed to be. It was just so big, and empty.

"Sam?" I cried, my voice shaking. I was getting scared now. Where was everyone?

"Kari?" a familiar voice called my name. Her familiar face came around a corner, and the next thing I know, I'm being engulfed in a famous Sam hug.

"It's so great to see you! How have you been? I missed you! What's going on with school?"

She always was a fast talker.

"You too. Fine. You too. Fine." I answered back, grinning because I knew she hated those answers.

She did not seem to care. She was ecstatic. Finally she got to show off her inn to me. Her kid, and her husband too.

"Come on, you have to meet my husband, Rollin, and my baby, Gerik," Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me through the halls talking at an alarming rate, even for her.

"Rollin's brother showed up a few minutes before you did, that's why it took so long for me to hear you, we were showing him around. He goes to Hogwarts with you, I think he's in the same year too. I could be mistaken though. They're with the baby right now, he started crying when he heard you calling, and I left Roll with him to take care of it. Come on, we're almost there."

She pulled me into a room that was a light blue and had all the toys and furniture you associate with babies.

"Here we are. Rollin, this is my little sister, Karina. Karina, this is my husband, Rollin. He's holding our beautiful baby boy, Gerik Eli Lupin."

I walked up to Rollin and Gerik and looked at my nephew.

"Hey baby. I'm your aunt Karina, but I don't want to be called that…what?" I asked looking up.

In front of me was a man around 21 who looked like he could be Remus Lupin's twin brother. Same light brown shaggy hair. Rollin's eyes were a little more brown than hazel. They both had the same facial structure and body build.

"What's wrong Karina?" he asked me concerned.

"Your surname is Lupin. That would me your brother, who is here is…"

Suddenly, I turned around, and there was Remus, looking just as surprised as I thought I looked.

"Hey Kari."

Silence from me.

"So you do know each other!" Sam exclaimed.

"Yeah. We're in the same house at school." Remus said quietly.

"Do you two not like each other?" Rollin asked while rocking Gerik.

"We _used_ to be great friends." I practically spat.

"Oh, what happened?" Rollin asked, looking curiously at Remus.

"Nothing I want to talk about." Remus said quietly.

"Me either."

"Alright. Well, we have to get back to the desk. This can be a busy time, so try to get along," Sam said, still eyeing me, "Marcia, you can come back!"

"Marcia's our babysitter." Rollin whispered.

When Marcia came back in, Rollin and Sam left. Taking the hint, I left too. I went down to the room I flooed into to gather my belongings and find my room. I heard Remus follow me, and I guessed he was going to do the same.

I got to the room, and grabbed my trunk. As soon as I was leaving the room, Remus said something.

"Wait."

I stopped. He did not say anything.

"What do you want?"

"To tell you the truth," he said quietly.

"I'm listening."

"Could we sit down here, please."

"Sure."

I let go of my trunk and turned around. Remus' race was pale and his hands were shaking a little.

"Can this really be that bad?"

"We'll see."

I walked over to the couch and sat down. Remus sunk down next to me.

"Kari, you and Lily were… are two of my best friends. These past few months have been really hard for me, but I've been afraid to tell you. Now that we are related, and how much I've missed our late nights, I'm going to tell what very few people know."

He paused trying to gather his nerves.

"Kari…I'm a…werewolf."

There was a long pause.

"And…" I was expecting worse.

"What do you mean 'and'! Once a month I turn into a vicious killer!"

"Once a month, yeah, but for the other twenty some odd days you're Remus Lupin. Don't be such a prat. You thought Lily and I wouldn't be your friends anymore if you told us? We had a pretty good idea that being a werewolf was your secret you know. We would have stopped hanging around you if it bothered us so much." I explained as calmly as possible.

"Why didn't you tell me you knew!"

"We did. That morning! We asked you to just confess! But nooooo, Remus has to be a stupid stubborn little BOY!"

He paused, thinking for a second.

"Sorry."

"It's alright. You're forgiven."

"Well good."

AN: ARG! Getting behind….will post this today! NOW! I'm so sorry to anyone who actually reads this. Review and I'll go faster promise.


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